FG vowed to crush Boko Haram

FG on Monday vowed to crush Boko Haram within six weeks as its leader warned a new regional fighting force “will not achieve anything” and the rebels launched fresh cross-border attacks.
National Security Advisor Sambo Dasuki, who this weekend secured a delay to NIGERIA’s presidential elections, said “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.
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.
Greater regional co-operation made it more likely that the rebels, whose fight to create a hardline Islamic state has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2009, would be defeated, he said.
Boko Haram 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.
The Islamist group has widened its offensive in recent weeks in the far north-east of NIGERIA around Lake Chad where the borders of all four countries converge.
On Monday, militant fighters raided a prison in Diffa, southeast NIGER, but were repelled, just hours before the country’s parliament voted on deploying troops for the regional fight-back.

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