Treat Boko Haram as Al-Qaeda terrorists, French envoy tells international community

France ambassador to Nigeria, Jacques Champagne de Labriolle, has called for international mobilisation against Boko Haram similar to that against Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.

Labriolle spoke to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday night on the sidelines of a reception organised for the new Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie.

His remarks came on the heels of President Goodluck Jonathan’s remarks on Saturday at a security summit in Paris which described Boko Haram as  “Al Qaeda in West Africa’’.

Labriolle said: “We believe that as some people have decided to breach the law to get whatever they think is a legitimate purpose, it’s the same story.

“As a matter of fact, we live in a situation that is very different from what happened before.

“Before you have international networks, you should have people on the ground, each with a local cause and the connection; now it is much simpler to establish.

“Therefore we believe that the mobilisation against Boko Haram should be the same as we have seen before against Al-Qaeda and for the same reasons.

“These (terrorists) people cannot stop and it will always be worse and it has to be dealt with as a collective problem.’’

The envoy, whose government is spearheading regional action against the murderous group, said France had offered to cooperate on intelligence and information to combat the group.

On the missing schoolgirls abducted since April 14 by the terrorist group, he said an immediate response by France was last Saturday’s summit convened by President Francois Hollande.

Labriolle said the summit was organised to fashion ways to deal with the Boko Haram terrorists.

“We organised it and it went well and for the girls, the idea is to locate where they are and this requires intelligence.

“What can be done in Nigeria on the ground will be done by Nigerians not by us.

“What we can do is to help in intelligence; this has been said publicly and we hope that we will be able to get some results soon,’’ he said.

Labriolle re-echoed views expressed by UK and U.S. officials that their assistance to Nigeria to find the missing girls and combat Boko Haram was not about “replacing the Nigerian army’’.

“We are here to help the intelligence in a case where it requires good relations with the neighbouring countries,’’ he said.

Also speaking with newsmen, Mr Uriel Palti, the Israel ambassador to Nigeria, said Israel was in solidarity with Nigeria in the battle against terrorism.

He recalled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had offered to assist Nigeria to combat terrorism in a telephone conversation with President Jonathan recently.

Palti said he would not go into details of what kind of assistance Israel would provide.

He, however, reiterated that the phone conversation between both leaders demonstrated “great friendship between Nigeria and Israel’’.

On his thoughts on the link between Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda, the envoy alleged that “Boko Haram, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Shabab were all part of the influence” of a certain country.

“During the years between 2000 and 2004, we felt the meaning of international terrorism during the “Intifada” and we share the challenge of Nigeria on attacking international terrorism,’’ he said.(NAN)

 

Treat Boko Haram as Al-Qaeda terrorists, French envoy tells international community