Troops For Multi-National Force July 30

President Muhammadu Buhari and other Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) yesterday approved the deployment of the national contingents to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) by July 30.

The Task Force is to root out Boko Haram from the North East of Nigeria and the entire region.

Deployment of the troops to the MNJTF is part of the resolutions of the over six hours Extraordinary summit of Heads of State and Government and Republic of Benin at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Other approvals of the meeting in the communique read by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Aliyu Ismail include:

“Approved the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) Strategic and Operational and related documents of the MNJTF for the fight against Boko Haram terrorist group.

“Approved the immediate deployment of the MNJTF HQ at N’Djamena (Chad) by implementing its human, logistic and financial requirements;

“Approved the funding of the sum of Thirty Million Dollars ($30,000.000) USD for the installation and equipping of the MNJTF HQ.

“Approved the establishment of the Executive Secretariat as the Headquarters of the Mission and the Executive Secretary of LCBC being the Head of Mission.

According to him, the leaders also approved the nomination of 3 key post of responsibility of the MNJTF HQs including Force Commander – Nigeria (Until the end of the mission), Deputy Force Commander – Cameroun (Rotational every 12 Months), and Chief of Staff – Tchad (Rotational every 12 months).

The Heads of state, he said, also requested for the African Union’s support to the MNJTF in its operations, logistics and general mission support; by mobilizing financial support.

It also resolved to seek the support of strategic partners, notably European Union, France, United Kingdom and United States of America in favour of the MNJTF.

The leaders during the meeting also requested the President of the UN Security Council to make a declarative statement in support of MNJTF Operations against the Boko Haram terrorist group.

It adopted the Emergency Plan for Development in the Lake Chad Basin.

Reading the communique, the Permanent Secretary said: “Deliberations focused on ‘The Security Situation in the Lake Chad Basin, the Immediate Operationalisation of the Multinational Joint Task Force and the Adoption of Emergency Development Plan’ were preceded by a preparatory meeting of the Ministers of Defence, the Chiefs of Defence Staff and Heads of Security and Intelligence Services of the LCBC member States and Benin.

“In the course of their deliberation, the Heads of State and Government of LCBC and Benin Republic acknowledged with satisfaction the success recorded on military operations jointly conducted in the field by the coalition of the troops from Cameroun, Niger, Nigeria and Chad which have significantly broken down military capability of Boko Haram terrorist group.

“However, they agreed on the need to keep on this drive marked by solidarity in action by taking decisive measures in order to totally curb Boko Haram insurgency.

“The Heads of State and Government of LCBC and Benin further agreed on the need to support military operations with an emergency development plan in favour of vulnerable populations in the region in order to fight against the root causes of insecurity relating to poverty.” he said

Source : TheNation