Nigerian president orders full-scale offensive against Boko Haram

Nigeria’s president has ordered “a full-scale operation” against Boko Haram Islamist militants and is seeking to reassure the parents of 219 schoolgirls being held by the group that their children will be freed.

Speaking on Nigeria’s Democracy Day, Goodluck Jonathan said he had authorised security forces to use any means necessary under the law to ensure Boko Haram, which operates in the country’s northeast, is defeated.

“I am determined to protect our democracy, our national unity and our political stability, by waging a total war against terrorism,” Jonathan said in a TV speech.

It was not immediately clear what such an offensive could entail, given that the northeast has been under a state of emergency and a full-scale military operation for a year. Nigerian forces are also hugely overstretched.

The phrase "total war", however, was used by Chad's President Idriss Deby following a meeting of Nigeria's neighbours in Paris in mid-May, in which they sought a common strategy to fight the militants.

“I assure you . . . that these thugs will be driven away. It will not happen overnight, but we will spare no effort to achieve this goal,” Jonathan said.

On April 14th Boko Haram militants surrounded a secondary school in the remote northeastern village of Chibok and took away 276 girls, who had been taking exams, in trucks, according to official figures from an audit this week.

Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at epicentre of the insurgency, said on Wednesday that 57 of the kidnapped girls had escaped. But 219 others were still missing and assumed held by the militants, who say they are fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria and have killed thousands over the years.

“With the support of Nigerians, our neighbours and the international community, we will reinforce our defence, free our girls and rid Nigeria of terrorists,” Jonathan said.

“I share the deep pain and anxiety of their parents.” – (Reuters)