Daily Times

ABUJA: French President Francois Hollande and his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday signed a “letter of intent” to pave the way for a defence agreement between the two countries.

Hollande, who met Buhari at the presidential villa in the Nigerian capital, also signed several accords strengthening existing cooperation, including through France’s main development agency, of upwards of $120 million (106 million euros) for Nigeria’s under-capacity electricity sector.

Hollande, who sees France as a natural liaison between its former colonies and English-speaking Nigeria, said results had been achieved through better regional coordination.

Paris had also provided training and equipment, he added, as part of the international support to Abuja that includes British military trainers and US surveillance drones.

Earlier, Hollande said Boko Haram remained a threat despite “impressive” military gains against it, as regional and Western leaders gathered for talks on terrorism.

“The results (of the counter-insurgency) are impressive” and the rebels had been “diminished and forced to retreat”, he told a news conference in Abuja, adding, “This terrorist group nevertheless remains a threat.”

Nearly seven years of violence have left at least 20,000 dead and left more than 2.6 million homeless, devastating infrastructure in Nigeria’s remote northeast and creating a humanitarian crisis.

Discussions at the security summit are expected to focus on the formal deployment of a new regional force comprising troops from Nigeria and its neighbours Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Over the last 15 months, individual armies have largely been acting independently to curb the violence in the face of mounting cross-border attacks, particularly suicide bombings against civilians.

The UN Security Council has also raised concerns about Boko Haram’s links to the Islamic State militant group, after reports of Nigerian fighters in lawless Libya.

Buhari said progress had been made, as Boko Haram, which captured swathes of territory in 2014 and declared a self-styled caliphate, was “now… not holding” any local government districts in the northeast.

But he said the “main problem now is rehabilitation” of destroyed infrastructure such as schools, health clinics, roads and bridges, as well as handling the displaced, more than 60 per cent of whom are women and children, many of them orphans.

“This is a pathetic situation and is a major problem we are going to face in this country.”