Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will this week make his first foreign trip since taking office, travelling to Chad and Niger for talks on Boko Haram, his spokesman said on Monday.
Buhari’s spokesperson Shehu Garba said the two-day trip starting on Wednesday will focus on “matters of security”, with the cooperation of Nigeria’s neighbors in an effort to end Boko Haram insurgency which has claimed more than 15,000 and left millions homeless.
Niger, Chad and Cameroon have been helping Nigeria recapture territory from the insurgents, who Buhari has described as “mindless” and “godless”.
At his inauguration, Mr Buahri vowed that he would tackle the six-year Islamist insurgency.
Buhari has said the military command centre will be relocated to the north-eastern city of Maiduguri and remain there until the group is completely subdued.
After a day in Niger, Mr Buhari will head to Chad, whose leader has been critical of Nigeria’s approach to tackling Boko Haram.
The group is still holding many women, girls and children captive, including 219 schools girls it kidnapped from a school in Chibok in April last year.
Despite losing territory and retreating to the Sambisa forest, the militants are still active – most recently in Maiduguri which has come under attack over several days.
On Tuesday, a new video was released by the group which it said was filmed in Sambisa, a vast forest surrounding a game reserve. The leader of Boko Haram did not appear in the video, hence fueling speculations about his fate.
