Britain Pledges to Assist Nigeria in Fight Against Terrorism

The British government has reaffirmed its commitment to help Nigeria end the menace of insurgency that has ravaged parts of the North East, a top British official, has said.

A statement issued by the Acting Director of Defence Information, Rabe Abubakar, said that the assurance was given by the British Deputy Chief of Defence Staff on Military Strategy and Operations, Gordon Messenger.

It said the top British military official gave the assurance while on a courtesy visit to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gabriel Olonisakin, in Abuja on Thursday.

It quoted the British general as outlining the areas of assistance to include capacity building on how to crush the dreaded militant group and other logistics support.

“The essence of this visit is to broaden the deep relationship and re-energise bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and Britain,’’ the statement quoted the visiting British general as saying.

Messenger said that efforts would be made to identify other key areas of need by the Nigerian Armed Forces for appropriate actions to be taken.

It said that the CDS, while acknowledging the concerns of Britain, especially in ensuring that Nigeria defeated Boko Haram in the quickest possible time, briefed his guests about the efforts adopted by the new military command to liquidate the insurgents and their cells.

The statement said that Olonisakin attributed the successes recorded to the renewed vigour by troops to end the insurgency, government’s renewed determination as well as the various measures adopted.

He assured the visiting British team that the Nigerian military would justify the confidence the international community had in it by ending the reign of terror “as soon as possible”.

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