Security meeting in Nigeria as Boko Haram attacks intensify

Peregrine ministers from Nigeria and neighbouring countries met on Wednesday to discuss Boko Haram, as the militants' rapid land grab intensified in the far northeast, raising fears for regional security.
The one-day meeting of representatives from Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger withal includes officials from the United States, Britain, France and Canada plus the African Union and United Nations.

Nigeria's ministry of peregrine affairs verbalized the verbalizes were aimed at "reviewing progress" of earlier meetings in Paris and London as well as the Africa Summit held in the United States last month.

In particular, it would examine "the extent of peregrine assistance, including efforts by the Nigerian regime, in the perpetuated fight to... rout the Boko Haram insurgency", it integrated.

Regional powers vowed to play a more preponderant role against the Islamists after the mass abduction of more than 200 girls from their school in northeast Nigeria in April, which caused global outrage.

International powers sent perspicacity and surveillance specialists and equipment to Abuja to avail trace the missing teenagers, 217 of whom are still being held captive
But proximately five months on from the abduction, Western diplomats have designated that there has been little progress, despite a claim from Nigeria's military that they had located the girls.

Recent weeks have visually perceived Boko Haram take and hold swathes of territory in northeast Nigeria, with the country's military ostensibly unable to check their advance.

On Monday, residents verbally expressed the militants surmounted the town of Bama, 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, sending hundreds of soldiers fleeing.

But top brass disputed the claim and maintained that they were still in control.

- Fear in Maiduguri -
The attack led to fears that Boko Haram has Maiduguri in its sights and aims to make it the centre of a separate, hardline Islamic state.

Andrew Noakes, co-ordinator of the Nigeria Security Network of analysts, admonished that the regime was losing control of prodigious components of the northeast and a looming humanitarian crisis.

"Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a sizably voluminous area of its territory reminiscent of ISIS's lightning advances in Iraq," he verbalized.

"If Borno falls to Boko Haram, components of (neighbouring) Yobe and Adamawa (states) can be expected to follow. Components of Cameroon along the border area would withal probably be overrun."

In Maiduguri, where thousands of people have fled violence from across Borno, residents verbalized they were preparing for the worst.
"We live in trepidation of a possible Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri because of the speed with which they are surmounting towns and villages," verbally expressed local man Babagana Kolo.

"Our concern is soldiers are not able to stop Boko Haram who take delight in killing people.

Boko Haram has been incriminated for thousands of deaths since 2009 but in recent weeks has transmuted tactics, shifting from indiscriminate and retaliatory hit-and-run attacks to seizing strategic territory.

In a video obtained by AFP on August 24, the group's bellwether Abubakar Shekau claimed that the town of Gwoza in Borno state was now part of an Islamic caliphate.

The group is now thought to hold a number of towns in an arc running from the Lake Chad area of northeast Borno, around the eastern border with Cameroon, to the south of the state.

It withal reportedly holds at least one town in neigbouring Yobe and Adamawa states. Independent corroboration is infeasible because of communication and peregrinate difficulties while the regime has officially gainsaid ceding territory.

Nigeria has perpetually played up what it verbally expresses is the regional aspect of the insurgency, inculpating peregrine fighters and overseas funding for the violence.

But while some peregrine mercenaries may form part of the guerrilla ranks and violence has spilt across borders, some analysts verbally express a wider military replication imperilled internationalising the conflict.