President Goodluck Jonathan hinted yesterday that Nigerian had concluded plans to deploy troops to Mali before next week to help in quelling an Islamist group’s insurgency in that country.
Speaking yesterday evening while hosting members of the diplomatic corps resident in Nigeria yesterday evening, the president said all hands must be on deck to fight extremism as no country knows when it will be its turn.
He said, “We are confronted presently with a situation in Mali; let me assure you and the global community that, as a nation, we will work with other nations to make sure that the problem in Mali is solved. Already our technical team is already in Mali; so definitely, Nigerian troops will be in Mali before next week.
“Of course, we members of ECOWAS? are meeting this weekend. Our expectation is that, by next week, most other ECOWAS countries that pledged troops would have sent them; so our men will be on ground to assist Mali to liberate the country.
“We can no longer surrender any part of the globe to extremism. We must collectively discourage individuals or group of individuals that will take laws in to their hands and make the world an unsafe place,” he said.
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