The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) on Monday met with President Goodluck Jonathan seeking to join forces with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fight the Boko Haram Islamist militants. President Denis Sassou N’Guesso of the Republic of Congo and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, who represented the ECCAS, met with President Jonathan at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, during a one-day working visit to Nigeria.
Speaking after the closed-door meeting, N’Guesso told journalists that they had reviewed the two challenges confronting the African continent. Significantly, Ebola is affecting countries in West Africa like Liberia, Guinea and Serra Leone, as well as the current security challenges facing the West African and Central African regions, especially terrorism and the menace of the insurgency by Boko Haram. They also condemned the insurgency, its destructive activities such as the indiscriminate killing of people and the wanton destruction of properties, the abduction of innocent women and children, especially young schoolgirls, who had been turned into sex slaves. He said they had come on a solidarity visit as well as to work out modalities on how to assist Nigeria to combat the issue of Boko Haram.
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The ECCAS delegation is expected to proceed to Ghana for further consultations with Ghanaian President John Mahama who is also the chairman of ECOWAS. Boko Haram has over the years widened its attacks into neighbouring nations, notably Cameroon and Chad, in a conflict estimated to have claimed 15,000 lives since 2009. Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria have recently formed a military alliance to combat the group that is fighting against western influence in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria.
The countries are also been supported by the African Union and the United Nations. “We will study the situation together and put in place security architecture to see how we can coordinate all our actions to put out and eradicate Boko Haram, which has been spreading in a very grave manner. We look forward to peace, security and development in Africa”, he said.
The meeting with Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is coming on the heels of a meeting held in Cameroon’s capital city, Yaoundé, where representatives of 10 nations met under the aegis of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and committed to spending $86 million to fight Boko Haram. Nigeria, who was to be an observer, was, however, absent at the meeting. “As you know at the last meeting of the Africa Union, the heads of state took some very important decisions principally to check the Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun and Chad. Following the meeting of the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African Countries (ECCAC) had a meeting recently in Yaoundé to address particularly the Boko Haram challenge in Africa and to see the possibility of ameliorating the grave situation. It’s on that platform that we met with our friend President Jonathan of Nigeria.”
