The United States will offer more
assistance to Nigeria in its fight against Boko Haram if the Federal
Government keeps to February 14 and 28 poll timetable.
The Deputy Spokesperson of the US
Department of State, Marie Harf, gave the condition at the department’s
daily briefing on Thursday.
The transcript of the session was obtained on Friday by our correspondent.
She said the US was committed to the building of capacity of Nigerian troops and other countries in the region.
She said: “We certainly provide a great amount of assistance to Nigeria when it comes to the fight against Boko Haram.
“Well, we certainly have, as the United
States, provided assistance to help in this fight, and you heard the
Secretary when he was in Nigeria say we want to do more to help the
Nigerians.
“Part of that depends upon them going
forward with the elections as scheduled, holding them – limiting the
violence, having credible and fair elections.
“So we certainly believe this is a
critical challenge. Boko Haram is a little bit of a different threat
than ISIS. Obviously, each threat is different, but we’re very committed
to helping the countries in the region fight this.”
To win the war against Boko Haram, Harf
said Nigeria and allied forces (Chad, Cameroon and Niger) require more
capacity and more willingness.
“Well, I clearly think if you just look
at the sheer amount of violence that Boko Haram has been able to
perpetrate that there needs to be more capacity and more willingness
among some of the parties.
Some of the – there’ve been some times
when people have stepped up and really tried to be aggressive against
Boko Haram, but clearly more needs to be done,” she added.
Asked if Western nations were reluctant
in moving against Boko Haram, Harf said: “Well, I think that’s probably a
larger analytical question that I’m not going to delve into from here.
“I can just speak for the U.S. and what –
this building and this government is very committed to helping Nigeria
and the countries in the region build their capacity and push them to
take on this fight even more seriously.”
On the alleged incursions into Nigeria by Chadian forces to fight Boko Haram, she said she could not confirm it.
But she was quick to add that the US thinks a regional effort is needed to curtail the insurgents.
She said: “Well, we have obviously seen
these reports about where certain troops are and who’s fighting who. We
do believe that a regional effort is needed to fight Boko Haram.
“Obviously, Nigeria plays the most important role here. So I can’t
confirm reports that Chadian forces have been inside Boko – excuse me,
inside Nigeria fighting Boko Haram, but we do think that a regional
effort is needed.
“We’ve talked to the regional partners about it, so I can check and see if there are more details.”
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