AU Gets $70m to Fight Insurgencies

The African Union (AU) has said it got $70million to fight insurgencies in the African continent.

It equally praised President Muhammadu Buhari for redeeming Nigeria’s pledge of $21m.

AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Amb. Smail Chergui, disclosed this on Wednesday, while briefing journalists at the end of the three-day retreat for AU and regional bodies in Abuja.

The contributions, according to him, became imperative for the takeoff of the multinational force.
Reacting to recent attacks in the North-east, Chergui said dealing with this unspeakable attacks on innocent citizens was a priority to the continental body.

He explained the raising of 9,000 multinational force to contain insurgency in the continent.

“It is not for Nigeria alone but for African region. When it comes to Nigeria and I think since the election of President Buhari, this is as a witness, and as a person who is working on a daily basis with the government of Nigeria on the issue this is now the first priority for the government. 

“I mean dealing with unspeakable terrorist attacks and their effects on the population is really a priority here in Nigeria. 

“And we are coordinating and helping also so that not only that the insurgency can be stopped. 

“I can mention the regional launch of the MNTF on the 25th of May. I inaugurated the headquarter of that force. 

“As we speak, we have almost 9, 000 persons from Nigeria, from Chad, from Niger and from Cameroun together with Benin engaged. So now we are really working on improving that force, not only through the contribution of Nigeria which is effective.

“This underline the fact that the president of this country is really serious about the issue.

“So the 21 million announcement has been really put in place to reinforce the fight. We have now what we mobilised from the partners which is almost $70 million which will also very soon be put in place.

“Just before coming here, I made sure that the contribution of European Union which is 50 million will be ready very soon. So this is to say that really we are with Nigeria and we are overwhelmed by the determination of each security and army to deal with this matter and really prevents the killings of innocent people or pushing people to be IDPs in their own country,” Chergui said.

Apart from raising a formidable force to contain Boko Haram and other sects, he added that AU would be focusing on how to prevent radicalism and also de-radicalisation.

“I can also tell you that we are looking also to prevent more radicalisation of people. So we have a programme working on that and we have a programme also on deradicalisation which will work with the whole region on this issue” he said.

He stressed that AU was working seriously to improve the force to be able to execute it’s mandate of ensuring peace and security in the continent.