News: We can handle Boko Haram, No need for UN or AU forces - National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki

Nigeria’s national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki on Friday
ruled out the need for a United Nations or African Union-
backed force to fight Boko Haram, saying the country and
its partners could handle the threat.
Possible “enhanced international support” against Boko
Haram will be discussed on the sidelines of an AU summit
later this month, given fears about the group’s threat to
regional stability.
But Dasuki, a former army colonel, said wider assistance
would not be necessary.
“It’s something that we can do. It’s absolutely something
we can do,” he told BBC World Service radio in an interview.
“I
think as it is we are in good shape to address the issue with
those partners, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.”
Representatives from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon
met this week to thrash out details of a new regional force
to counter the rising threat from the Islamist militants.
An existing force, made up of troops from Nigeria, Niger
and Chad appears to collapsed in disarray even before the
January 3 attack on its headquarters near the northeastern
town of Baga.
Troops from Niger and Chad were not present during the
raid, which saw Baga razed and hundreds of civilians, if not
more, killed in what is feared could be the insurgents’ worst
atrocity.
Tuesday’s meeting agreed to transfer the headquarters of
the new force from Nigeria to the Chadian capital,
N’Djamena, reflecting concern about Boko Haram’s rising
transnational threat.
Boko Haram has seized dozens of towns and villages in the
northeast in the last six months and now controls the
border of Borno State with Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Some analysts have suggested that it is trying to revive a
defunct 19th century Islamic caliphate, whose borders
corresponded to parts of modern-day Nigeria, Niger, Chad
and Cameroon.
The group’s leader Abubakar Shekau, however, mocked the
proposed new force in a video published online on Tuesday,
boasting that his fighters would take on all comers and that
“Nigeria is dead”.
“The kings of Africa… I challenge you to attack me now. I
am ready,” he said. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS

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