12,000 Nigerians lost to Boko Haram— Jonathan

The havoc visited on the nation by Boko Haram was laid bare by President Goodluck Jonathan who, yesterday, claimed that the Islamist group’s insurgency in Nigeria had claimed over 12,000 lives. Jonathan spoke in Paris, the French capital, at a summit with his counterparts from Benin Republic, Chad, Cameroun and Niger, where an action plan designed to counter the terror activities of Boko Haram in West Africa was
approved. The action plan would involve coordination of surveillance efforts, sharing of intelligence and joint efforts to secure the porous borders in the region. French President Francois Hollande hosted the summit in response to the terror activities of Boko Haram which peaked about a month ago with the abduction in Chibok, Borno State, of more than 200 school girls. “We have seen what this organisation is capable of”, Hollande said at the summit. Addressing the summit, Jonathan stated that the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria also injured more than 8,000 persons. His words: “This unconventional war has so far claimed over 12,000 lives with more than 8,000 persons injured or maimed, not to mention the displacement of thousands of innocent Nigerians.” Jonathan, who has been criticised for what many see as a lack lustre response to the Chibok girls’ abduction, said he was totally committed to finding them and returning them to their distraught families. “We are totally committed to finding the girls, wherever they are,” he said. “We’ve been scanning these areas with surveillance aircraft,” he added, saying Nigeria had deployed 20,000 troops to find the girls. “Boko Haram is no longer a local terror group,” he said. “From 2009 to today it has changed and can be described as Al-Qaeda in western and central Africa.”