Buhari calls for cooperation against instability in W/Africa, Sahel region

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on countries in the West African sub-region and the Sahel currently facing security challenges to team up and confront the menace. The President made this call yesterday at the State House while receiving the new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mr Mahamat Saleh Annadif, a Chadian. “You are our neighbour. You have vast experience on matters affecting the Sahel, having served for five years in Mali.

I hope you will get the countries to work together to confront the issues affecting them,” he said. Describing the security challenges in the region as enormous, the President noted that Boko Haram had exacted heavy toll in terms of lives and resources in Nigeria and some neighbouring countries, adding that Mali equally had a large swathe of the country occupied by militants. “I hope under the auspices of UNOWAS, you will help get the problems sorted out. Most of them have to do with the instability in Libya, and it affects all of us,” he stressed. He pledged the assistance of Nigeria to the special representative so that he could succeed in his assignment