I have just come from chairing
the London Ministerial meeting on Security in Nigeria.
We have all re-affirmed our
strong and united commitment to defeat Boko Haram, to end the scourge of
terrorism in Nigeria and to secure the safe return of the schoolgirls who are
of course still missing.
We, the UK, have continued our
support for that search as you know in providing surveillance aircraft and that
continues. I am not going to give a running commentary on the technical
progress of that search that’s not in the interest of the girls but a
great deal of work continues with multi-national support. To ensure that we
deal more effectively with Boko Haram and with incidents of this kind we have
reached a series of important agreements.
First, Nigeria, Chad, Benin,
Niger and Cameroon have today confirmed that they will operationalise a
Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit to bringing together all available
information and tighten the net around Boko Haram. The UK, along with the US
and France, will provide the necessary technical expertise.
Second, Regional countries have
also agreed that they will from now on be running Multi National Joint Task
Force patrols. We know that terrorists in Nigeria use porous borders to their
advantage; they use them to regroup and to regroup and to rearm. This Task
Force will better enforce borders to shut down escape routes of the terrorists.
These are important steps towards making Nigeria safer for ordinary people
under threat from terrorism.
But we did not just discuss
security so third, all of the countries present have committed themselves to
considering what more they can do on development, governance, education and
gender to combat the underlying causes of conflict and insecurity in the
region.
And we were united in our
agreement that any effective response must be fully in accordance with human
rights.
I am also pleased to be able to
announce a substantial package of new British advice and support which we have
agreed with our US and French partners.
We will increase our work with
the Nigerian Government to strengthen its capacity to deal with Boko Haram.
This will mean significantly expanding the training and tactical assistance
that the UK provides to the Nigerian Armed Forces. This will include helping to
train units deployed on counter insurgency operations against Boko Haram in
North East Nigeria. We will also provide further assistance to regional
security and intelligence cooperation.
We also want to make sure that
Boko Haram does not succeed in its twisted mission to deny education to girls,
so together with the US, we will boost our education programmes to draw a
million more boys and girls into education in Northern Nigeria. We will be
increasing our support for girl’s education to help better protect those
who are most vulnerable.
And through our Department for
International Development, we will do even more to help Nigeria and the region
deliver development and prosperity, ensuring that basic services and
infrastructure are provided to those communities most at risk.
This package is a substantial
boost to our existing commitment to the fight against Boko Haram and we will
meet again to discuss progress in Nigeria.
The abduction of the schoolgirls
was a terrible reminder of the toll taken by Boko Haram on women across the
world. It is therefore very good news that in the margins of this Summit
Cameroon, Benin and Niger have joined Nigeria and Chad in endorsing the
Declaration to End Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Defeating Boko Haram will be a
long and difficult task. But the atrocities committed against innocent and
vulnerable communities are too important to ignore. And all the countries
gathered here today have shown that we are certainly not going to ignore them
and our resolve to defeat them has been further increased.