African leaders are stepping up their response to Boko Haram, with Chadian soldiers chasing the militants from a northern Nigerian town and the African Union calling for a 7,500-member regional force to tackle what it called “a serious threat” to the continent.

A communiqué adopted by the peace and security council of the African Union, which is meeting this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, calls on Nigerian soldiers and their counterparts from four neighboring countries — Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger — to “prevent the expansion of Boko Haram,” search for those abducted by the group and conduct joint patrols at their borders. It does not specifically authorize the most sensitive step: cross-border operations.

According to a Chadian military spokesman, Nigerian news media reports and officials in Niger, Chadian forces took control on Thursday of Malam Fatori, a northern town that Boko Haram had held since October.

If confirmed, the recapturing of the town would indicate a breakthrough in regional military cooperation in the fight against the insurgents, which the Nigerian military has long viewed warily. A Nigerian Army spokesman said his troops had been involved in the operation, too, and another Nigerian official said his country “has never objected to cross-border operations in the fight against Boko Haram.”

Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group, has dug its heels into a swath of northeastern Nigeria and continues to spread havoc across an already fragile region. The International Organization for Migration estimates that a million Nigerians have fled their homes, and that an additional 100,000 have sought shelter in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. This has created “risks of tension” between refugees and residents, the African Union communiqué said.
In a Twitter post on Friday, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the chairwoman of the African Union Commission, wrote, “Terrorism, in particular of #BokoHaram, requires a response that is collective, decisive & effective to achieve the desired results.”

The need for a regional force to tackle insurgents based inside its territory is something of an anomaly — some say an embarrassment — for Nigeria. Nigeria has the continent’s largest military and contributes large numbers of troops to United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide.

One United Nations diplomat said the country’s “fragility” in the face of Boko Haram had prompted other countries in Africa to act. “There is a serious concern that if nothing is done, this Boko Haram terror group could affect a huge chunk of the continent,” the diplomat said. “What the region needs to do is to address this head on.”
Nigeria’s neighbors, particularly Chad and Cameroon, have already mobilized their troops to push back Boko Haram. Regional rivalries, however, have hindered agreement on whether soldiers from one country can pursue the insurgents across borders. Cameroon, which has had longstanding territorial disputes with Nigeria, had strongly objected to operations that could lead to having Nigerian soldiers on its soil, diplomats said.

In October, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria agreed to the idea of a joint force, which was to have its headquarters in a northern Nigerian town called Baga. Disputes among the troop-contributing countries delayed full deployment, and in mid-January, Boko Haram insurgents stormed the town, killing scores of people and destroying buildings, according to satellite images published by Human Rights Watch.

Ministers from the five countries, along with African Union and United Nations officials, are due to meet in early February to work out the details of the regional force. The African Union would then seek the blessing of the United Nations Security Council — as well as a trust fund to pay for it.


Human Rights Watch cautioned the African Union this week to safeguard human rights as part of the new regional force, specifically to “take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, including by not exposing civilians to retaliatory attacks.”

Chadian troops were accused of committing rights abuses last year during an African Union-led peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic. The Chadian government withdrew its troops from the force last year, acknowledging that its soldiers had been accused of siding with Muslim militias in sectarian clashes with Christian fighters. The Chadians had said they acted in self-defense after one particularly deadly attack.

Chad has emerged as a crucial partner to Western powers in the fight against terrorism in Africa. Its soldiers have served alongside French forces to root out Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb from Mali’s northern deserts.

Chad said its soldiers had pushed the Islamists from Malam Fatori in remote semidesert scrub near the Niger border. “We confirm it,” a Chadian military spokesman, Col. Abouna Azem, said on Thursday. “It’s been retaken.”

Malam Fatori is about 90 miles from Maiduguri, the regional capital of northeastern Nigeria and home to more than two million people. Maiduguri sustained a significant attack this week and is thought by officials to be Boko Haram’s ultimate target.

A local government official in Niger, just across the Komadugu River from Malam Fatori, confirmed that Chadian forces had been at the forefront of the fight against Boko Haram, including by bombing the insurgents’ camps on islands in nearby Lake Chad.

A Nigerian military spokesman refused to confirm, however, that it was the Chadians alone who had retaken Malam Fatori.

“It’s not the Chadian forces solely that are operating there,” said the spokesman, Chris Olukolade, adding in a subsequent text message that Malam Fatori is part of the area where the multinational regional force is authorized to operate jointly. Mr. Olukolade said the Nigerian Air Force had also been engaged in the fight for the town.