US says it won’t give up till sect is defeated

This was disclosed by United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Samantha Power in Cameroon on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.

Read excerpts from her speech below:

When it came to our discussions on Boko Haram, I underscored to these leaders that the United States is committed to partnering with Cameroon to defeat Boko Haram. Defeating Boko Haram and neutralising its impact so that civilians feel safe requires work on multiple fronts, and we are working on multiple fronts here in Cameroon and also in the broader Lake Chad Basin region.

We are training and equipping regional militaries and we are sharing intelligence with those forces to strengthen the region’s capacity to mount a coordinated fight against Boko Haram. The United States will stand with Cameroon until Boko Haram is vanquished.

I also shared with these important officials, including the president, the critical lessons that the United States has learned in our fight against terrorism. The critical lesson is that Boko Haram cannot be defeated by military means alone.

And in this regard, I am very pleased to announce that the United States will provide nearly $40 million in new humanitarian assistance to countries in the Lake Chad Basin region to support the approximately 7 million people whose lives have been affected by Boko Haram violence.

With regard to your question about Boko Haram’s kidnapping of the Chibok girls, I would start by noting that we just passed the two-year anniversary of their abduction and as a parent I can’t even conceive of what the parents of those girls have gone through every minute of every day for those two years.

I would also note, tragically, that those girls are only a small fraction of the number of girls and boys who have been abducted by Boko Haram, particularly in northern Nigeria.

And I want to assure the parents of the Chibok girls and the parents of any children who have gone missing that, again, the United States is in this for the long haul. We will support the multinational task force and all of the economic development, humanitarian, and political efforts aimed at bringing home those children to the families of which they belong.

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