Nigerian President Asks For U.S. Support To Tackle Insecurity
Buhari, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met virtually President suggests U.S. Africa Command relocates to continent
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari asked the U.S. to support Africa’s efforts in tackling growing insecurity in the region.
Washington should consider relocating the headquarters of the U.S. Africa Command to the continent from Stuttgart, Germany, to better support the fight against rising insecurity, Buhari said in the first virtual meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The U.S. set up Africom to help countries in the region tackle transnational threats.
“The security challenges in Nigeria remain of great concern to us,” Buhari said, according to an emailed statement on Tuesday. Insecurity in the nation has been made worse by “existing complex negative pressures in the Sahel, Central and West Africa, as well as the Lake Chad region,” he said.
Africa’s most populous country is contending with a decade-long war against Islamist insurgents in the northeast, a worsening conflict between nomadic herders and crop farmers, and growing banditry. This has been compounded by a series of student abductions that have shut down hundreds of schools.
– Bloomberg