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UN urges better results from Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram

Xinhua, February 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN chief for West Africa called on Friday for a "better resolve" with "greater results" from the Nigerian military in a planned joint task force of neighboring countries to fight the extremist group Boko Haram.

Mohammed Chambas, a special representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and head of the UN Office for Western Africa (UNOWAS), also approved a delay of elections in Nigeria by an independent national election commission from this week to late March, urging the commission to ensure voting cards reach those still without them and urging the police to ensure security for free and fair balloting.

"We all expect more from the Nigerian military," Chambas told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York via video conference from the Nigerian capital of Abuja. "We have seen it in other theaters where they have performed creditably. They have been contributing to peacekeeping around the world for years and demonstrated robustness."

"Now we want to see that same robustness in the fight against Boko Haram and perhaps one can say the elections may be a little bit of distraction at this point even if it is a necessary distraction," Chambas said.

Both the government of Nigerian President Goodluck Johnson and the opposition have agreed on the delay.

"We would hope that soon after the elections Nigerians will unite and rally around the fight against Boko Haram and that we will begin to see a better resolve on the part of the Nigerian military and of course greater results in the fight against Boko Haram," he said.

With Boko Haram crossing Nigeria's border into its neighbors' territory, a regional multi-national joint task force (MNJTF) is being formed with troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, with the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) serving "as a platform to coordinate the fight by the countries affected," Chambas said.

The African Union and the United Nations are expected to provide technical assistance to the LCBC.

The MNJTF, which is expected to involve about 8,700 troops, has yet to be authorized by the UN secretary-general and the UN Security Council possibly next week, Chambas said, adding that a price for such an operation has not been determined. EndI