Paris summit seeks solutions to Nigeria’s Boko Haram threat

(Vatican Radio) Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan addressed an international summit in Paris on Saturday in which he said that Boko Haram is no longer a local threat but has become West Africa's Al-Qaeda.

West African leaders and Western officials met in the French capital to try to improve cooperation in their fight against the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls and threatens to destabilise the wider region.

Outrage over the kidnapping and the slow response by the government has already prompted the Nigerian President to accept the help of U.S., British and French intelligence in the hunt for the girls.

Boko Haram has killed more than 3,000 people in a five-year campaign to establish an Islamic state in mostly Muslim northeast Nigeria.

Listen to Ann Schneible’s report: