AU backs joint task force to 'eliminate' Boko Haram

(Vatican Radio) The African Union has voted to back plans for a West African military task force to fight Boko Haram militants, “prevent (their) expansion” and “eliminate their presence” in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, said AU commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The Islamic militant group has killed thousands of people in the past six years and seized control of a part of northeast Nigeria.

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Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger have agreed to contribute troops to the joint task force, which would number 7,500 and be given an initial one-year mandate.

The plan will be submitted to the UN Security Council for approval.

Agreement on the joint task force represents a "turnaround" for Nigeria, which previously had said it could fight Boko Haram on its own and opposed international military intervention.

However, even prior to the agreement, in the first such action by foreign troops on Nigerian soil, Chad on Thursday sent a warplane to drop bombs and ground troops in order to drive Islamic extremists from a Nigerian border town. Witnesses said the bombing did indeed kill some extremists.

During their meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the member of the African Union also elected Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, to be their next chairman.