Boko Haram received training within, outside Africa – Defence minister

The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, said on Wednesday that
the Boko Haram terrorists had over the years received support and
training from larger terror networks within and outside Africa.

The minister said although the Boko Haram sect killed many
innocent citizens, sustained counter-insurgency operations by
Nigeria and other countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission had
helped in destabilising the Boko Haram network.

The defence minister stated this in a paper on regional security
he presented at the 8th conference on international security in
Moscow, Russia. The paper was made available to our correspondent
by the minister’s Public Relations Officer, Col. Tukur Gusau.

Dan-Ali noted that Nigeria needed Russia’s support in the
building of “nuclear power plants, petroleum pipelines, railways
and other infrastructural development investments in the oil and
gas sector.”

The minister said, “There is the worrisome rise in terrorism and
insurgency on the African continent with specific reference to the
Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin countries, Al-Shabaab in Somalia
and Kenya, and the Islamic State in Mali. Since 2009, Nigeria has
been combating terrorism engendered by the Islamic sect called Boko
Haram.

“…The economic and developmental progress made by Africa is
threatened by setbacks owing to traditional security concerns such
as insurgency, armed conflicts, food insecurity, migration,
economic crisis and political instability.

“Perhaps a greater security concern for the African region is
the emergence of new security issues such as terrorism, militancy,
piracy, cultism, political and electoral violence. Others are the
growing youth involvement in substance and drug abuse, refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons situation occasioned by conflicts,
unemployment and poverty.”