Foreign Secretary William Hague
The US secretary of state John Kerry led the meeting which took place in London from June 11th to June 13th. He stated that the “summit will underscore the need for a comprehensive, regional approach to countering terrorism, while emphasising civilian security and respect for human rights,”
The UK’s Foreign Secretary William Hague was also in attendance and was a chair man of the meeting. Further UK defence and development support in the fight against Boko Haram was agreed upon at the meeting. They will continue to lend Nigeria support in defeating the terrorist group and will continue to help in the search of the missing school girls.
In a statement Hague outlined the nature of the agreement:
First, Nigeria, Chad, Benin, Niger and Cameroon have today confirmed that they will operationalise a Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit to bringing together all available information and tighten the net around Boko Haram. The UK, along with the US and France, will provide the necessary technical expertise.
“Second, regional countries have also agreed that they will from now on be running Multi National Joint Task Force patrols. We know that terrorists in Nigeria use porous borders to their advantage; they use them to regroup and to rearm. This Task Force will better enforce borders to shut down escape routes of the terrorists. These are important steps towards making Nigeria safer for ordinary people under threat from terrorism.” He added that the summit “did not just discuss security” and “that all the countries present have committed themselves to considering what more they can do on development, governance, education and gender to combat the underlying causes of conflict and insecurity in the region.”
The ministerial meeting follows the Nigerian Security Summit that took place on May 17th in Paris.
