Military chiefs from the Lake
Chad region have finalised details of the deployment of a joint force to
fight Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, designating three command
posts in Nigeria and Cameroon, military sources said on Saturday.
At
a two-day meeting in N'Djamena, which concluded late on Friday,
military commanders from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin agreed
to accelerate the deployment of the 8,700-strong force, which will have
its overall command centre in the Chadian capital.
A
disjointed campaign by Nigeria, Chad and Niger swept Boko Haram out of
the towns of northeast Nigeria earlier this year but the group, which
has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, has killed hundreds of people in
the last three months in those three countries, as well as neighbouring
Cameroon.
Regional governments have since dragged
their heels in establishing the integrated taskforce, supposed to start
operations on July 31.
"We have finalised the
details of the deployment of troops," said one officer who took part in
the meeting. "The force commanders will inspect the sites of the
barracks in the coming days."
The military sources
said the two command posts for the joint force in Nigeria would be in
Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad, and in Gambaru, on the border with
Cameroon.
The third command post would be
established further south in the Cameroonian town of Mora, on the other
side of the border from the Nigerian settlement of Gwoza, where Boko
Haram formerly had its headquarters.
The chiefs of
staff also ordered officers seconded to the headquarters of the force
in N'Djamena to report immediately to their posts, as it was almost
ready to become operational.
Boko Haram has killed
and kidnapped thousands of people in a six-year campaign to carve out
an Islamic state from northeast Nigeria.
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