Africa Watch: West African nations, int'l partners vow to step up fight against Boko Haram

West African countries and international partners including the United States and the European Union have pledged more joint efforts to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency.

The second Regional Security Summit held in Abuja ended on a fruitful note on Saturday, as Nigeria and its neighbours, as well as development partners who attended the meeting pledged further support to rout Boko Haram as a step toward strengthening the fight against terrorism globally.

Its first edition was held in Paris, the capital of France, in 2014.

Nigeria has commenced investigation into the main source through which Boko Haram was getting its weapons, Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari said at the end of the summit.

Buhari, while fielding questions from reporters at the end of the summit on Saturday, said so far no credible intelligence has linked Boko Haram's source of weaponry to the Islamic State (IS), even as the former had pledged allegiance to the latter.

According to Buhari, there have been speculations across the world that Boko Haram was getting its arms and ammunition from IS, but the claim remained unsubstantiated because there was no clear evidence to it.

"Frankly, up till now, we do not have firm intelligence of what IS has been able to send to Boko Haram in terms of weapons or even money," the Nigerian leader said.

He, however, opined the source of Boko Haram's sophisticated weaponry might be from the various police and military bases attacked at the peak of the insurgency in Nigeria and affected neighboring countries.

"If you recall, they attacked military bases and carted away weapons, they attacked police stations and broke into their armories, that was how they got the kind of weapons they have been using to fight," he added.

Saturday's meeting was attended by French President Francois Hollande, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and heads of government in the West African sub-region, among others.

The summit was aimed at combating the Boko Haram insurgency; strengthening cooperation between the member states of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and Benin Republic; establishing a Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit (RIFU) and ensuring the safe release of the Chibok Girls.

Since that first edition held in Paris, there have been four Ministerial Meetings; one each in Paris, London, Washington and Abuja.

The Abuja Summit saw regional Member Countries reporting on gains and challenges so far in combating Boko Haram, as well as conduct an appraisal of successes and failures.

The meeting stressed the need for the international community to close ranks with countries of the Lake Chad basin to tackle the root causes of terrorism and the general development of the region.

Hammond, who represented Britain at the summit, said his country had committed a lot of resources in tackling terrorism in the Chad Basin and Nigeria in particular.

He said Britain would improve its support for Nigeria's counter-terrorism efforts through intelligence sharing, training of members of the armed forces and supply of military hardware.

Blinken said the United States will improve support to the Nigerian military and to the government's post-insurgency plan.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU had committed 50 million euros to support the Multi-national Joint Task Force in the fight against insurgency.

The official said the EU remained committed to the peace process in the Lake Chad region as well as the resuscitation of economic and social activities in the region. Endit