U.S stands with allies in fight against Boko Haram- Diplomat

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, says the United States stands with the east African nation of Chad and its neighbors in the fight against Boko Haram.

Power is on a three-nation visit to east Africa to highlight U.S. support for the fight against the militant group, which is active in the Lake Chad Basin area where Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon all share borders.

Power said Wednesday in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena that the United States continues to support the fight against Boko Haram by providing advisors, information, training, logistics support, and equipment to the regional military force set up to counteract the group’s attacks and attempts to gain control of more territory.

She said, repeating a point she made a day earlier in Cameroon, that the fight against Boko Haram will take more than military effort. She said the effort must also include political accountability, respect for human rights, and strengthening of the rule of law.

When questioned about Boko Haram’s most famous kidnap victims, the so-called “Chibok girls” abducted from a Nigerian school two years ago, Power noted that the more than 200 girls are among thousands of Boko Haram kidnap victims. She said the passage of time has not blunted the resolve to reunite those victims with their families.