Central and
West African
states will
hold a
summit next
month to
agree a
common
strategy to combat the Boko Haram
insurgency, their leaders said on Wednesday.
Cameroon, Chad and Niger have launched an
offensive to end the Islamic militant group’s six-
year campaign, which has killed thousands in
northern Nigeria and spilled over into Cameroon
and Niger.
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama and
his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby told
reporters in Accra that the April 7-8 summit, for
which the host country has yet to be chosen, was
needed to sustain the regional offensive.
Mahama chairs the West African regional bloc
ECOWAS, while Deby heads the Economic
Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
“Single-handedly, no country can overcome this
threat and therefore through pooling our
resources together …we are going to overcome
this challenge,” Deby told reporters.