Chadian soldiers involved in the fight against Boko Haram patrol in the Cameroonian town of Fotokol, on the border with Nigeria, on February 3, 2015/AFP
ABUJA, Nigeria, Feb 10 – Nigeria insisted Monday it will crush Boko Haram militants and avoid another election postponement, even as violence raged and the Islamists’ leader vowed to defeat a regional force hunting them.
National Security Advisor Sambo Dasuki’s comments came as Boko Haram launched another attack in neighbouring Niger and reports emerged of 20 people kidnapped in Cameroon, with 12 of them executed.
Niger’s parliament voted unanimously on Monday to send troops to join the regional fightback against the extremists, who have seized swathes of northern Nigeria in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2009.
Dasuki, who at the weekend secured a six-week delay to Nigeria’s presidential elections, vowed that “all known Boko Haram camps will be taken out” by the time of the rescheduled vote.
“They won’t be there. They will be dismantled,” he told AFP in an interview when asked what gains could be made against the Islamists before the new polling date of March 28. READ: Nigeria under fire over vote delay.
Nigeria has previously set deadlines to defeat the insurgents that have come and gone.
But Dasuki said that even if the goal was not achieved “the situation then would surely be conducive enough for elections”, with no need for a further postponement to voting.
Meanwhile Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau mocked west African leaders’ multinational force in a new video on YouTube on Monday, saying it “won’t achieve anything.”
The Islamists last week opened up a new front in Niger after sustained attacks in Cameroon’s far northern region, which led to the deployment of Chadian troops alongside Cameroon forces.
They have widened their offensive in recent weeks in the far north-east of Nigeria around Lake Chad, where the borders of all four countries converge.
Niger, while housing thousands of refugees from the conflict, had been mainly spared the violence until last week. Monday’s unanimous parliamentary vote to send troops to join the fightback will see some 750 soldiers deployed, a lawmaker said.
Just hours before the vote, militant fighters raided a prison in Diffa, southeast Niger, but were repelled.
A deadly explosion then ripped through a local market, with one local merchant saying: “Everything blew up – I saw bodies everywhere.”
On Sunday, suspected Islamists kidnapped 20 passengers aboard a bus going from Koza to Mora in the far north of Cameroon, then killed 12 of them and released the rest.
“Every day citizens are frequently kidnapped in this region,” a security source said. “Some are usually freed when their families negotiate, while others are killed.”
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