regional task force of 7,500 to fight Islamist Boko Haram militants, a
senior official said on Thursday.
Neighbours Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin agreed earlier in
January to call on the African Union (AU) to seek U.N. Security
Council support for their plan to take on insurgents who are fighting
to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Boko Haram has made incursions into neighbouring Cameroon and
threatens the stability of a region that includes Niger and Chad.
Benin lies on Nigeria's western border.
"We are thinking of a force of 7,500 women and men. The next step is
to submit (approval) to the U.N. Security Council," the Commissioner
of the AU's Peace and Security Council, Smail Chergui, told reporters
on the sidelines of an African summit in Addis Ababa.
Tackling Boko Haram was top of the agenda at the meeting of African
leaders and officials.
"Hopefully now with this concept, this force will be better organised
and we can achieve the goal that we are looking for, that is to really
stop the killing and these barbaric acts of Boko Haram," Chergui said.
A U.N. mandate could help draw international assistance for the
African regional force.
The African group plans to meet next week in Cameroon to draw up a
"concept of operations" to cover strategy, rules of engagement,
command and control, and related issues, Chergui said.
Senior officials have told Reuters that each of the five nations would
contribute a battalion and each contingent would be based within its
national borders with operations coordinated from Chad's capital,
N'Djamena.
Boko Haram has seized control of parts of north-east Nigeria and
killed thousands in a six-year insurgency.
On Thursday, President Goodluck Jonathan visited Adamawa, one of three
states placed under a state of emergency because of the insurgency.
Speaking in the state capital, Yola, he said the army had just
recaptured the town of Michika, leaving only one of Adamawa's Local
Government Areas, Madagali, in the hands of militants.
Military sources told the BBC there had been a fierce battle for
Michika and troops were carrying out mopping-up operations in
surrounding villages. They cautioned that it was too early to say the
army was in full control of the area.
--ChannelsTV
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