Nigeria seeks American help to fight Boko Haram

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was at the U.S. Senate Tuesday seeking U.S. support in the fight against Boko Haram militants.

Just eight weeks after taking office, Buhari dressed in traditional attire, posed for photos flanked by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and Senators Bob Menendez, Jeanne Shaheen, and Jeff Flake.

The Islamist Boko Haram has been waging a six-year-old insurgency with the aim of carving out a caliphate in the north of Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.

Earlier Tuesday, Buhari was at the World Bank where the international financial institution pledged to spend up to $2.1 billion to rebuild the northeast of the country devastated by Boko Haram militants.

Buhari met U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to discuss how to tackle the insurgency in his first visit to Washington since his election in March.

Buhari won March elections and became president on May 29, after campaigning against corruption and pledging to quash an insurgency by Boko Haram Islamists, but critics have asked why Africa’s biggest economy still has no cabinet ministers.