Top Nigerian military officials complained Wednesday that the Obama administration and the West are not doing enough to help in the struggle against the brutal Boko Haram group, praising Chad and other poor countries in the region for doing more to halt the advances of the Islamist terror organization.
The officials — the first to visit Washington since Boko Haram leaders reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State — said the U.S. was falling short in sharing intelligence on Boko Haram, even as the government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has made good progress on the battlefield in containing the threat.
The U.S. government is “doing its best, but the best is not enough,” said Rear Admiral Gabriel Okoi, Nigeria’s chief of defense intelligence, speaking at an event organizing by the Atlantic Council, a D.C.-based think tank.
“There is no need for me to hold back certain data that I have,” the admiral said. “Terrorists don’t wait to share information, so why should countries? We need to share intel as we have it. We were almost on our knees begging other countries to help us.”
In the past three years, the United States has committed over $40 million to African countries for training and equipment to combat Boko Haram. U.S. Special Forces are also training counterterrorism groups in the area.
But Adm. Okoi said Nigerian forces need access to U.S. intelligence on the terror group in real time. He felt that shared knowledge would have allowed Nigerian counter terrorist groups to combat Boko Haram sooner.
SEE ALSO: John Boehner rips Obama’s military aid to Ukraine as weak
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Amanda J. Dory told reporters on a visit to Cameroon Wednesday that the Obama administration will vote for a United Nations plan to create and help fund a 10,000-troop West African force to take on Boko Haram, the Reuters news agency reported.
The U.N. force, it is hoped, will prove more effective in combined operations that the efforts so far from Nigeria and its neighbors. U.N. diplomats say the hope is to have a Security Council vote to approve the force, which has already been approved by the 54-nation African Union, by mid-April.
After a series of brutal strikes, the six-year-old Boko Haram insurgency seized control of most of the northeastern Nigerian border shared with Cameroon. But a new combined offensive with Chad, Niger and Cameroon has helped Lagos take back control in 36 towns in recent days. The terror group now holds only four local towns, according to Ambassador Ayodele Oke, the head of Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency.
Mr. Oke said he was confident that the offensive will have the remaining four towns taken back in time for Nigeria’s elections on March 28, which were originally going to be held on Feb. 14 but were postponed because of what the government said were mounting security concerns.
“We wanted to insure a peaceful election,” said Mr. Oke. “As we stand, we can see that the people are more confident of peaceful elections that will meet international standards.”
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Wednesday that France was increasing its forces in West Africa to support forces fighting Boko Haram.
SEE ALSO: Pyongyang-Moscow love: Russia, North Korea step up warming ties
Rep. Stephen Lynch, Massachusetts Democrat, is in Nigeria this week as part of a congressional delegation, said this is a “critical time” for Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, and the region.
“The situation can change quickly and we have to continue to find ways to collaborate with our African partners as they battle against regional terrorist organizations,” Mr. Lynch said.
Although Boko Haram is losing territory to Nigeria’s offensive efforts, Mr. Oke said he expected bombings and attacks to continue. In the Nigerian city Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, 17 people were killed in a suicide bombing on Tuesday. The marketplace where the attack occurred has been attacked before. The city was also hit by several bombs on Saturday.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Hannah Crites can be reached at hcrites@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.