US VOWS TO CRUSH BOKO HARAM

The United States of America has once again voiced out that its fight towards ending the Boko Haram siege of the North East of Nigeria is total. This was made public by US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Ms Linda Thomas- Greenfield in a live interview with journalists.According to the US envoy, "I was surprised I didn’t get a question on Boko Haram and the seizure of the girls earlier. As you know, both President Obama and Secretary Kerry indicated that we are going to work closely with the Government of Nigeria as well as countries in the region to do everything possible to bring these girls home. We are working with the Nigerian Government, both as – on the security side, but also in addressing broader issues related to the girls. We have a team, as you know, in Nigeria. The team is multi-agency. We have individuals there from the civilian side who can provide assistance on negotiations. We have individuals from USAID who are there to assist those girls who escape or the girls who are recaptured, to help them reintegrate back into their communities and into society.

And we’re working very, very closely with regional partners. The French Government hosted a heads of state summit bringing together Nigeria and the four neighbors back in May. The UK Government brought the foreign ministers together a few weeks ago, and Nigeria will be bringing the neighbors together on September 3rd to look at how we can further cooperate with each other, share information, and also fight the attacks that Boko Haram has made throughout Nigeria as well as in neighboring countries.
It is still an ongoing battle. Our ultimate goal is to stop Boko Haram, to stop the kidnappings, and to bring the girls home, as well as others who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram.

In answers to other questions as, 'Unemployed youth are easily recruited for terrorist activities in Africa, with reference to Boko Haram in Nigeria. Don’t you think it’s time to locate the headquarters of the Africa High Command or AFRICOM to West Africa to deal with Boko Haram and other terrorist groups' Linda continues, "It’s not so easy. The – dealing with these terrorist groups require a multifaceted, multidimensional response. It requires a response that addresses the needs of these young people who are not vested in the futures of their countries. They are attracted by the extremist ideology because they have no other ideology to focus on, and this is what the Young African Leaders Initiative is about. It’s about finding a way to provide for the futures of these young people so they’re not attracted to the Boko Harams of the world; they’re vested in the futures of their country. They are employed, they’re in successful businesses, they’re educated, and then they are less attracted to extremism.
So the answer is not the U.S. Government sending Africa Command to address this in a military way. This is not just a military response; it’s much more a response that requires looking at economic development, looking at education programs, looking at services and infrastructure being provided to these communities that are impacted by Boko Haram."

She concluded, "A huge portion of the – of our time will be used to discuss these issues. There is a segment of the summit that will focus on peace and security, and during that peace and security discussion I expect – and I can’t predict, but I expect – that issues related to extremism, issues related to al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, AQIM, will be discussed by leaders. When I was in Malabo recently for the AU summit, this was an issue that was raised consistently by all of the African leaders I met with – their concern about the spread of extremism, their concern about how to effectively address extremism, and their request for U.S. assistance and coordination with neighbors to stop the spread."