African Union raises 7,500 men to fight B’Haram

The African Union (AU) has endorsed a plan for a regional task force of 7,500-man army to fight Boko Haram.

The leaders’ meeting during the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) agreed to the plan after its session on Thursday to bring to an end to the killings and maiming in north-eastern Nigeria by the militant group.

The meeting, presided by President Alpha Conde of Guinea, expressed hopes that the effort would curtail the militants, who have recently expanded their attacks to the borders of Lake Chad region of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Earlier in the month, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin urged AU to seek UN Security Council mandate for their plan to take on the insurgents.

“We are thinking of a force of 7,500 women and men which will be submitted to the U.N. Security Council for approval,” Smail Chergui, AU commissioner for Peace and Security Council, told reporters on the sidelines of an African summit in Addis Ababa shortly after the meeting.

“We hope that the concept of the force would be better organised and we can achieve the goal that we are looking for to really stop the killing and these barbaric acts of Boko Haram’.’

He said the African group would meet in Cameroon early February to draw up a concept of operations and strategy, rules of engagement, command and control, and related issues for the force.

Each of the five nations would contribute a battalion, each contingent establishing a base within its national borders while operations are coordinated from Chad.

The endorsement is expected to be ratified at the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government scheduled for Friday at the Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, capital of ethiopia