LAGOS – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and his Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Saturday discussed ways to fight insurgency in the two countries where Islamist militants have launched intense attacks in the past month.
The meeting was held behind closed doors at the presidential palace in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja.
“I have come to meet my brother on the issue of insecurity, to see what we can do, that is why I am here,” Keita told reporters after the meeting.
But he did not give any further details.
The degenerating security situation in northern Mali and northeast Nigeria dominated discussions when leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in an extraordinary session in Accra, Ghana, on Friday.
The ECOWAS summit was aimed at preventing acts of terror from spilling over into the larger West African sub-region.
In Nigeria, three northeastern states are under a state of emergency to battle an uprising by Boko Haram militants who have killed more than 2,000 people since 2009 in their quest for an Islamic state.
The sect has claimed responsibility for a mid-April abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in the northeastern state of Borno, which evoked global condemnation.
In Mali, Islamist separatists have held sway in the country’s desert north, clashing repeatedly with government forces. –Nampa/Xinhua