Nigeria and its neighbours today vowed to work together to combat Boko Haram in what Cameroon President Paul Biya described as a declaration of war on the Islamic militants.
Meeting in Paris, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and his counterparts from Benin, Chad, Cameroon and Niger approved an action plan designed to counter an organisation blamed for 2,000 deaths this year alone and which has caused global outrage with its abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls.
Just hours ahead of the summit, the Islamists carried out another brazen attack, this time killing one Chinese worker and kidnapping 10 others in Cameroon -- underlining the regional threat posed by the group.
"We have seen what this organisation is capable of," French President Francois Hollande said at the close of the half-day summit here. "They have threatened civilians, they have attacked schools and they have kidnapped citizens of many countries. France in particular has been a victim of it.
"When more than 200 young girls are being held in barbaric conditions with the prospect of being sold into slavery, there are no questions to be asked, only actions to be taken," Hollande added.
The action plan would involve coordination of surveillance efforts, the sharing of intelligence and joint efforts to secure the porous borders in the region, Hollande said.
The West African countries have also been promised help in the form of surveillance tools and expert advice from Britain, France and the United States as they seek to combat a group that Hollande said had forged links with terrorist groups all over Africa.
"Religious intolerance has no place in Africa," said Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi.
Nigeria's Jonathan, who has been criticised for what many see as a lacklustre response to the girls' abduction, said he was totally committed to finding them and returning them to their distraught families.
"We are totally committed to finding the girls, wherever they are," Jonathan said.
