Boko Haram affected areas

ТAt the beginning of the year, Boko Haram controlled some 20 local governmental districts in the three north-eastern states in Nigeria,У Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), said. ТToday, Boko Haram holds only a few areas in Borno State.Т

ТAt the beginning of the year, Boko Haram controlled some 20 local governmental districts in the three north-eastern states in Nigeria,У Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), said. ТToday, Boko Haram holds only a few areas in Borno State.Т

Nigeria ramped up security nationwide on Wednesday before general elections this weekend, shutting land as well as sea borders and vowing to crack down hard on political unrest.

Central and West African states will hold a summit next month to agree a common strategy to combat the Boko Haram insurgency, their leaders said on Wednesday.

The Nigerian army said Tuesday that it had repelled Boko Haram from all but three local government districts in the northeast, claiming victory for its offensive against the Islamist insurgents.

Nigeria has brought in hundreds of mercenaries from South Africa and the former Soviet Union to give its offensive against Boko Haram a shot in the arm before a March 28 election, according to regional security, defence and diplomatic sources.

If approved, the new force would receive U.N. funding and would be likely to result in a bigger and better resourced operation than the offensive currently being mounted against the militants by Nigeria and its neighbours.

Troops from Chad and Niger have taken two northeastern Nigerian towns after bloody fighting that has left some 200 Boko Haram fighters dead, a Chadian security source has said.

The exodus of Nigerians fleeing violence in the countryХs north-eastern regions continues amid an influx of sixteen thousand refugees into neighbouring Cameroon, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has reported.

At last, Nigeria and its neighbours - Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin - have a plan for their Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to fight Boko Haram's Islamist militants. The plan has now been approved by the African Union. But what are the chances that this 8,700-strong regional force will root out an insurgency responsible for the death of tens of thousands in recent years?