United States supports Nigeria with $5billion to Fight Boko Haram

 

The United State Government has contributed $5m to the Multinational Joint task Force to enhance the Effective fight against Boko Haram
US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Ambassador Linda Thomas- Greenfield, announced this at a news briefing via telephone from the African Union, AU, Summit yesterday, as an indication of U.S interest in Africa as Monitored by NAN at The US Embassy in Abuja.

“We have been working with Nigeria as well as the African countries’ innovation to address their concerns about Boko Haram because we don’t see this as just a Nigerian problem
“We are having discussions with President Muhammadu Buhari on how we might bolster our support. We are already working with them and providing information.
“We are providing some training and support and we’ll love to work with the new administration to see how we might increase the level of support to Nigeria.
“At the same time, we’ve just announced at the venue of the AU, $5bn contribution to the Multinational Task Force. “We are also providing some equipment and support and we have a number of meetings with the countries which are members of the Multinational Joint Task Force to look at other areas we might support,” she said. Thomas-Greenfield said Africa has faced “some really horrendous terrorist attacks” over the past two years.

 cited the West Gate and Garissa University attacks in Kenya, and the Boko Haram attacks particularly, the kidnapping of the Chibok girls among others. “While I would not say Africa is under siege, Africa has some major security challenges.

“That requires a very strong and concerted strategic effort by African countries and partners to address the security concerns of Africa,” she added. According to her, the US is providing a strong support to AU on security as it has a strong partnership with the continent on security.

“We are working closely with the Lake Chad Basin countries – Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon to address the issues of Boko Haram,” Thomas-Greenfield said. She noted that US had so far trained about 250,000 African peacekeepers, adding that US’ highest priority in Africa remains security