Hollande welcomes Nigeria, regional powers for security talks

Towards the end of 2013, heads of state, government and top officials from 53 African nations met in Paris for a summit focused on peace and security in Africa as France prepared to launch its second military intervention in the continent in a year.

The 2013 Elysée Summit for Peace and Security in Africa ended with African leaders reiterating their collective commitment to security across the continent, including partnerships in the fight against terrorism.

But implementing summit declarations is often easier said than done – particularly in a continent that was carved into nation states by colonial powers, leaving simmering disputes, divided ethnic groups and mutual suspicions across borders.

On the other hand, militant Islamist groups tend to be dismissive of national borders and make it their mission to infiltrate frontiers in their constant quest for safe havens and their dream caliphate.

Over the past few weeks, that transnational terrorist capacity has once again come under the spotlight, this time in West Africa.

When Boko Haram abducted over 200 schoolgirls from a remote north-eastern Nigerian village last month, the sheer scale of that attack mobilised the international community, sparking a global #BringBackOurGirls campaign and prompting offers of help from countries such as the US, UK, France, China and Israel.

It wasn’t long before some of that attention shifted to the cross-border threat Boko Haram represented and the measures required to tackle the challenge.

Enter France, a country that has increasingly intervened in conflicts in the region despite declarations that Paris is not interested in playing gendarme in its pré carré (backyard) – as its sub-Saharan zone of influence is popularly known.

But unlike Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR) – two former French colonies where France launched military operations in 2013 – Nigeria, a former British colony, is not part of the pré carré. It is however surrounded by Francophone countries and that’s where France can play a critical role in addressing the regional security threat posed by militant groups such as Boko Haram.

On Saturday, Jonathan met with his counterparts from neighbouring Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger at a Paris summit convened by French President François Hollande “to discuss fresh strategies for dealing with the security threat posed by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in West and Central Africa,” according to a Nigerian presidential statement released Thursday.

Nigerian reluctance to accept foreign help

The fact that Nigeria is not part of France’s pré carré is an advantage in a continent where old colonial sores can be easily worried or reopened.

“France is not a former colonial power in Nigeria and in the past, the French diplomatic engagement with Nigeria was not so strong,” said Paul Melly, a specialist on Franco-African relations at the London-based Chatham House. “But over the past year, there has been a deepening of a political relationship between the two countries.”

Hollande was the only Western head of state to be invited to the launch of Nigeria’s centennial celebrations in February, marking 100 years since the British colonial authorities amalgamated the separate protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria.

Speaking at a conference on security and development on the sidelines of the centennial celebrations, the French president promised Nigeria support in the battle against Boko Haram. "Your struggle is also our struggle,” said Hollande. "We will always stand ready not only to provide our political support but our help every time you need it, because the struggle against terrorism is also the struggle for democracy."

But Nigerian authorities have been reluctant to accept foreign assistance even as Boko Haram attacks on security forces, churches, markets, schools and mosques in northern Nigeria escalated over the past two years.

More than 3,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched its bloody campaign five years ago to establish an Islamic state in mostly Muslim northeast Nigeria. In the first three months of 2014 alone, at least 1,500 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks, according to Amnesty International.

US assistance offers have also been spurned, according to the Wall Street Journal, since Nigerian authorities believe the use of US drones would “increase America's ability to pry into the country's affairs”.

‘A powerful confession of dependence’

But the public anger and mobilisation over the April 14 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok not far from the Cameroonian border sparked a change in official Nigerian policy as Jonathan came under heavy criticism over the government’s slow response to the attack.

In the lead-up to Saturday’s summit, as teams of international security experts arrived in Nigeria, French officials were careful to stress that the Paris talks were being convened following a request by Jonathan during a phone conversation with Hollande.

In an interview with FRANCE 24’s sister radio station, RFI (Radio France International) Gilles Yabi, a seasoned Africa expert, noted that Jonathan’s call for a regional summit in France, “reflects a powerful confession of dependence, of a need for a French initiative by Nigeria, a major African demographic and economic power.”

French officials have noted that Paris was an obvious venue for the meeting given the good relations between Hollande and Jonathan, France’s experience fighting jihadist groups in Mali, and its security interests in the area following a recent spate of kidnappings of French citizens by Boko Haram and a splinter group in neighbouring Cameroon.

All eyes on Cameroon’s Paul Biya

Participants at the Paris summit include the leaders of Nigeria’s neighbouring countries, such as Chadian President Idriss Deby, Niger’s Mahamadou Issofou and Benin’s Thomas Yayi Boni.

But all eyes at Saturday’s summit were trained on Paul Biya, Cameroon’s 81-year-old president who has been in office for more than 30 years.

The long-time Cameroonian leader, whose extravagant vacation bills occasionally make the headlines in Cameroon and France, is notoriously averse to attending international summits.

Biya was not present at the Nigerian centennial celebrations earlier this year amid simmering tensions between the two countries.

Saturday’s summit has been hailed in the Cameroonian press as an opportunity for the leaders of Nigeria and Cameroon to “finally have a face-to-face discussion” about issues and disagreements over the cross-border threat posed by Boko Haram.

“There is absolutely no dialogue between Cameroon and Nigeria," explained a French diplomatic source in an interview with Reuters. "Until now, Cameroon has not accepted it has a problem - but it has been destabilised in the north by Boko Haram and in the east by the influx of refugees from Central African Republic. It must talk with Nigeria."

With a 1,600 kilometre border between the two countries, Cameroon is at particular risk of a Boko Haram threat spillover. Over the past two years, at least seven French citizens have been kidnapped by Boko Haram and its more extremist splinter group, Ansaru, from Cameroonian border regions.

Nigeria has already reached an agreement with Niger to allow its troops to cross the border in pursuit of Boko Haram, and is discussing a similar agreement with Chad.

But it has complained that the far north of Cameroon is being used by Boko Haram militants to shelter from a Nigerian military offensive and to transport weapons, and has urged Cameroon to tighten border security.

Security experts hope the Paris summit will enable Nigeria’s neighbours to agree on a joint counter-terror plan to fight Boko Haram, which would include intelligence-sharing and border controls.

France is pushing Nigeria, which currently sits on the 15-member UN Security Council, to ask for Boko Haram and its key members to be placed on a UN sanctions list, as has been the case with other militant groups such as al Qaeda.

By hosting this summit in Paris while French troops are stationed in Mali and the CAR, Hollande is placing France at heart of the fight against terrorism in West Africa, according to Antoine Glaser, founder of the bimonthly French magazine, La Lettre du Continent. In a phone interview with FRANCE 24, Glaser noted that, “François Hollande is playing the diplomatic card in Africa, the only continent where France still has influence."