West African leaders will seek authority next week from the African Union to create a multinational force to fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram Muslim extremists, Ghanaian President John Mahama told reporters on Friday.
Any such force would represent the most robust international response yet to the extremists who have killed thousands of people over the past year in their campaign for a self-described Muslim caliphate and who have also launched cross-border attacks into Niger and Cameroon.
Boko Haram is seen as the most serious security threat to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest energy producer, but Mahama said the group and militants in Somalia, Kenya, Mali and elsewhere posed a wider risk.
“Terrorism is like a cancer, and if we do not deal with it, it will keep going. It threatens everybody in the subregion. When it comes to terrorism, nobody is too far or too near,” he said.
It is likely to take months before an African Union force could be set up, and key issues such as who would command it, the location of its headquarters and its financing remain undecided, he said.
However, the African Union could seek a UN Security Council mandate to take over the force after it is set up, as happened in Sudan’s Darfur region, he said.
Mahama was speaking as current chair of West African regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States, which has been accused of not doing enough to combat Boko Haram.
“Nigeria is taking military action and Cameroon is fighting Boko Haram, but I think we are increasingly getting to the point where probably a regional or a multinational force is coming into consideration,” he said earlier.
Earlier, Boko Haram militants seized the military base and town of Baga, in Nigeria, on the shores of Lake Chad, on Jan. 3. Baga was the headquarters of a planned — and stalled — force intended to fight the insurgents, with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
France must do more against Boko Haram, French President Francois Hollande told French and foreign ambassadors in Paris.
“Today, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin are threatened, and this situation means the international community must take appropriate action and cannot let this be,” he said.
France said last month that it would help coordinate a regional task force against Boko Haram, given signs of mistrust among West African neighbors.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya this month appealed for military help against Boko Haram.
On Friday, US Ambassador to Cameroon Michael Stephen Hoza said Washington would help train local soldiers and offered equipment for the fight.
Russian Ambassador to Cameroon Nikolay Ratsiborinski said Moscow would supply equipment, training and arms, as well as humanitarian assistance.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was