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Botswana has no plan to send troops to Nigeria: official

Xinhua, January 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The government of Botswana on Monday said it so far has no plans to respond to a call by African Union (AU) to offer military assistance to Nigeria, which is under siege from Boko Haram militants.

In a statement released last week, the chairperson of AU commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, stressed the urgency of a coordinated African and international response, in view of the increasing threat that the Boko Haram terrorist group and terrorism in general poses to regional peace and security.

Botswana government spokesperson Jeff Ramsay on Monday revealed there are currently no plans to send any troops to Nigeria, before referring further questions to the Ministry of Defense, Justice and Security.

"At the moment I don't know of any plans to send troops to Nigeria," said Ramsay.

For his part, Director of Protocol and Public Affairs at the Botswana Defense Force (BDF), Tebo Dikole said the BDF is governed by the BDF Act which dictates that they take orders from the Commander in Chief, who is the president Ian Khama.

"If the president prescribes that we do something, then we act on his instructions without question," he said.

Dikole further explained that Botswana, being a Southern African Development Community (SADC) member state, is unlikely to partake in a peacekeeping mission in Nigeria as it does not fall within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that is applicable to Nigeria.

Botswana troops have in the past participated in peacekeeping missions in other countries. In 1992-1993, Botswana joined a United States led coalition force to restore peace in Somalia. BDF officers also joined a UN peacekeeping mission in Mozambique in 1993-1994 and another SADC military intervention in Lesotho in 1998. Furthermore, in 2004 Botswana sent troops to an AU mission in Dafur, Sudan. Endi