UN to support Nigeria's anti-terrorism drive

Accra, July 11 (IANS) The UN announced Thursday it will adopt an integrated support package to complement Nigeria's anti-terrorism efforts within its borders.

It said the support was as a result of its belief that it could only take a multidimensional approach to bring lasting solution to the crisis in the terrorism-hit African country, Xinhua reported.

Said Djinnit, special representative for the UN Secretary General in West Africa, announced this here while addressing the opening session of the two-day 45th Summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

"The United Nations is deeply concerned about the persisting insecurity in north-eastern Nigeria as a result of Boko Haram terrorist activities and the violence against innocent civilian population with the attendant violation of human rights and dire humanitarian consequences," he said.

"Our primary and immediate concern is the plight of children, including in particular those that are being held by the terrorist Boko Haram group as well as the fate of the civilian population in the North-East, where human rights and humanitarian conditions are distressing," Djinnit said.

Nigeria has been facing severe terrorist attacks from the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, with the mid-April abduction of 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, northern Nigeria, and a late June bomb blast in Abuja which killed 21 people.