Abuja (AFP) – President Muhammadu Buhari will travel to neighbouring Cameroon on Wednesday to consult with counterpart Paul Biya on Boko Haram’s insurgency, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said.
“President Buhari is going to Cameroon on Wednesday. He will hold talks with President Biya on arrival on Wednesday and the issue of Boko Haram will be central in their discussion,” he told AFP on Monday.
“The visit is part of the consultation on the Boko Haram insurgency. He was to have gone on the visit in June but for the invitation to Germany by the G7,” Adesina said of Buhari’s participation last month in the German-hosted summit of leading industrialised nations– his first major international meeting as Nigerian president.
Since his inauguration on May 29, Buhari has visited Chad and Niger, two neighbouring countries jointly fighting Boko Haram along with Nigeria.
Boko Haram attacks in Chad and Niger have claimed dozens of lives in the past weeks.
Heavy fighting broke out Monday between the Chadian army and Boko Haram jihadists, security and local sources said.
“Violent clashes” are under way near Baga Sola, one of the main Chadian towns in the lake that straddles Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger, a Chadian security source told AFP.
Buhari, 72, is due back in Abuja on Thursday from Cameroon, Adesina said.