Boko Haram trains militants in Middle East –Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has said Boko Haram fight­ers have traveled to the Middle East for training with Islamic State militants.

He however declined to name the countries where the fighters were allegedly trained. In an interview with VOA yesterday, he said he’s long suspected Boko Haram of having alliances with inter­national extremist groups.

“So we know the links are there. But even now, we may not know the degree of link­ages as to how much funds are coming in from them, the kind of volume of weapons coming in from them, the nationalities coming from them,” Jonathan said. “But the training, be­cause some of the Boko Ha­ram members go to have their training in the ISIS camp and come back.”

In the interview, Jonathan credited both the interven­tion of Nigeria’s neighbours as well as the acquisition of new weapons for turning the tide against the militants. He hit back at criticisms that foreign troops aren’t being allowed to push into Boko Haram strongholds deep in Nigerian territory. He said Cameroon previously denied Nigeria permission to pursue Boko Haram into its territory, and added that restrictions on foreign troops were matters of coordination.

“I think the idea is that look, for any major aggression, we  should know. Where possible, let some Nigerian soldiers also be with you,” the president said. He also said that foreign technicians are present in the northeast to teach Nigerian troops on how to use their new weapons, since there wasn’t time to train the troops before they deployed.

“So we now have this tech­nical people who are trainers and technicians, who are to train our people on how to use them, and technicians that help the maintenance, at the same time training our people how to maintain this equipment,” Jonathan said.

He said two unnamed com­panies were involved in the training but declined to offer nationalities or numbers of the trainers. Jonathan dismissed the suggestion that Boko Ha­ram’s insurgency has come to define his time in office.

“Yes, it’s a major security issue, it’s the number one se­curity issue we have as a na­tion. But definitely you cannot define us by Boko Haram,” he said. As the multinational of­fensive continues, Jonathan predicted that the northeastern states of Yobe and Adamawa would be cleared of Boko Haram territory before the middle of next week. He said he hopes neighboring Borno State, where the group started, will be cleared in the next three weeks.

But Jonathan said he expects Boko Haram to continue bomb­ing markets and bus stops. He says the government’s strategy is to improve intelligence gath­ering as well as job and educa­tional prospects in the northeast as a long-term strategy to de­stroy the group.

The All Progressives Con­gress presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, told VOA last week he is not surprised that Nigerian soldiers have started to push Boko Ha­ram out of areas the militants had captured.

Buhari said that in the past the soldiers weren’t properly armed and weren’t properly motivated to fight. The joint op­erations with Chad, Niger and Cameroon forced the govern­ment to get more sophisticated weapons to the troops, Buhari said.

He also paid tribute to Nige­rian soldiers, who, he said, have been known for gallantry in past international peacekeeping op­erations all over the world and promised them a better deal if he takes over the presidency.

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