Lawless borders spur West African summit

Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou, left shakes hands with Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, right, as French President Francois Hollande, center, looks on upon his arrival for the "Paris' Security in Nigeria summit", at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, May 17, 2014. Leaders from Africa as well as officials from the United States, Britain and France meet to coordinate a response to Boko Haram, the fundamentalist group that abducted more than 300 girls and is accused of hundreds of deaths in the past year alone. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou, left shakes hands with Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, right, as French President Francois Hollande, center, looks on upon his arrival for the "Paris' Security in Nigeria summit", at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Saturday, May 17, 2014. Leaders from Africa as well as officials from the United States, Britain and France meet to coordinate a response to Boko Haram, the fundamentalist group that abducted more than 300 girls and is accused of hundreds of deaths in the past year alone. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

PARIS -- The heads of state of five West African countries, including Nigeria, met Saturday with Western officials and agreed to share intelligence and strengthen military cooperation to combat the regional threat from the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram, which abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria last month.

Hours after two more attacks in Boko Haram strongholds -- one in Nigeria that left a village torched and 40 people dead and another in Cameroon -- the leaders agreed to improve policing of frontiers, share intelligence and trace the weapons and cash that are the group's lifeblood.

At the request of Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, President Francois Hollande of France organized the meeting, which was also attended by the heads of state of Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin, countries that border Nigeria and that have long been suspicious of one another. The borders among the countries are notoriously porous, and Boko Haram's adherents have easily slipped across them.

"We have decided to set up a general, regional action plan on the medium and longer term," Hollande said, noting that there would be "intelligence coordination, sharing of information, centralization of means, border surveillance," among other activities.

"We know the threat; it is serious, it is dangerous for the region, for Africa, and so for Europe," he said.

"We've been able to identify ties that link Boko Haram with all the terrorist organizations that are active in Africa," Hollande said.

Jonathan underscored Nigeria's "commitment to a regional approach" to the problem. "Without West African countries coming together, we will not be able to crush these terrorists," he said.

The goals of the meeting were relatively modest but meant to be a first step toward persuading the countries to work together. Senior U.S., British and European diplomats also attended.

Among the subjects discussed was the possibility of rescue operations to free the kidnapped girls.

The five countries agreed to a plan focusing on enhanced military cooperation and intelligence sharing. This would be particularly important between Nigeria and Cameroon, two oil-rich countries whose relationship has long been undermined by a territorial dispute. Cameroon has largely overlooked the activities of Boko Haram, viewing the movement "as Nigeria's problem," according to Le Figaro, a French newspaper.

The plan also aims to strengthen Nigeria's cooperation with Niger, a poor country where the army has recently clashed with insurgents linked to Boko Haram.

Nigeria is a former British colony, but the other four countries were formerly under French rule.

Freeing the schoolgirls would be a difficult task, said Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs at the U.S. State Department, who implied that it might be a task beyond the abilities of Nigeria's military.

"If there were to be a rescue operation, that's a very specific skill set, and not every army in the world has that skill set," Sherman said, adding that there had been some training of Nigerian forces to add those skills.

"Whether they'd be able to attempt a rescue, I think, would just depend on the circumstances," she said.

Officials have said there will be no Western military operation. British officials say Jonathan has ruled out swapping prisoners for the girls.

"There are many ways to bring this horrific situation to a close, but when and if we know where they are then the Nigerians will have to decide how to proceed," Sherman said.

Western countries are worried about the spread of Boko Haram's influence but are also reluctant to become deeply involved in the region. However, after the kidnapping of the Nigerian girls, an episode that has drawn international attention, they have sent intelligence reports and some military resources to aid Nigeria's military in its search.

The United States has provided surveillance aircraft as well as an interagency team that includes military experts to advise Nigerian officials. France has sent a team of intelligence experts, according to advisers to Hollande.

In April, the International Crisis Group, an organization committed to conflict resolution, warned that Boko Haram's activities could spill into Niger and Cameroon, which are "weak countries poorly equipped to combat a radical Islamist armed group tapping into real governance, corruption, impunity and underdevelopment grievances shared by most people in the region."

Until now there has been little cooperation among Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. While Chad and Nigeria have the strongest militaries in the area, they do not work well together. Nigeria's army has been hampered by corruption and a reputation for cruelty to civilians.

A multinational border force that includes soldiers from Nigeria, Chad and Niger has been largely ineffective at stopping the insurgents from moving from one country to another, and its soldiers have been implicated in the killing of civilians.

For France, the summit meeting is an opportunity to show that it has a constructive postcolonial role to play in its former West African colonies, and the talks are part of an effort by Hollande to help France change its relationships in the region by being less of an enabler of corrupt governments and more of a force for stability and development.

Saturday's agreement won't require France to deploy more military means, Hollande said.

France took a leading role in the war against Islamic extremists and groups linked to al-Qaida in Mali, and more recently it has been active in the Central African Republic, where Christian and Muslim militias have been engaged in an increasingly violent sectarian conflict.

The French military has troops in Chad and Niger, and French officials have emphasized France's experience and expertise in the fight against terrorism in Africa.

In addition, France has a special interest in Boko Haram because a French family of seven was kidnapped by members of the group in February 2013 in northern Cameroon. They were eventually released with the help of Cameroon's government.

On Saturday, suspected Islamic militants also attacked northeast Nigerian village before dawn killing about 40 people and burning all the huts as well as three vehicles, according to a member of a vigilante group that went to the village, Dalwa-Masuba, about 50 miles southwest of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his group, one of many vigilante organizations set up to fight Boko Haram, does not permit members to talk to reporters.

On Friday, Boko Haram insurgents crossed over from Nigeria into northern Cameroon and attacked a work site operated by a Chinese company, leaving at least 10 people missing and one person dead. China is a major investor in the region, helping build infrastructure, public-health projects and sports facilities and importing crude oil, timber and cotton.

The camp was in the same nearly trackless parkland where the kidnapped girls were first spirited away after an attack on their school in northern Nigeria, highlighting Boko Haram's ability to cross borders unimpeded.

Jonathan has asked his nation's parliament to extend a year-old state of emergency in three northeastern states where Boko Haram has focused its attacks. Nigeria's House of Representatives has approved a six-month extension, and the Senate is expected to vote on it this week.

Information for this article was contributed by Maia de la Baume, Alissa J. Rubin and Adam Nossiter of The New York Times; by Gbenga Akingbule, Rudy Ruitenberg and Chris Kay of Bloomberg News; and by Lori Hinnant, Sylvie Corbet, Krista Larson, Michelle Faul and Haruna Umar of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/18/2014

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