AFP
Lagos
Nigeria’s presidency claimed Boko Haram’s 10-year-old insurgency had been "defeated” but admitted that international jihadists posed a growing threat.
"The position of the Nigerian government is that the Boko Haram terrorism has been degraded and defeated. The real Boko Haram we know is defeated,” the presidency said in a statement late Tuesday.
It said the country was now facing "a mixture” of Boko Haram remnants, criminal groups and jihadists from the Maghreb and West Africa fuelled by turmoil in Libya and the collapse of the Islamic State caliphate in the Middle East.
"As a consequence of these international gangs, we have seen an increase of trans-border crimes and the proliferation of small arms in the Lake Chad Basin area.”
President Muhammadu Buhari, a former general who vowed to crush Boko Haram when he became president in 2015 for his first term in office, has previously said the group were "beaten”.
The uprising began in northeast Nigeria in July 2009 when fighting between the hardline group and government forces left hundreds of jihadists dead, including leader Muhammad Yusuf.
Since then, the bloody campaign has killed some 27,000 people, displaced over two million people and spilled over into neighbouring countries.
Lagos
Nigeria’s presidency claimed Boko Haram’s 10-year-old insurgency had been "defeated” but admitted that international jihadists posed a growing threat.
"The position of the Nigerian government is that the Boko Haram terrorism has been degraded and defeated. The real Boko Haram we know is defeated,” the presidency said in a statement late Tuesday.
It said the country was now facing "a mixture” of Boko Haram remnants, criminal groups and jihadists from the Maghreb and West Africa fuelled by turmoil in Libya and the collapse of the Islamic State caliphate in the Middle East.
"As a consequence of these international gangs, we have seen an increase of trans-border crimes and the proliferation of small arms in the Lake Chad Basin area.”
President Muhammadu Buhari, a former general who vowed to crush Boko Haram when he became president in 2015 for his first term in office, has previously said the group were "beaten”.
The uprising began in northeast Nigeria in July 2009 when fighting between the hardline group and government forces left hundreds of jihadists dead, including leader Muhammad Yusuf.
Since then, the bloody campaign has killed some 27,000 people, displaced over two million people and spilled over into neighbouring countries.