Military Pressure Is Hurting Boko Haram. Now What?

Nigeria hosts second regional security summit on insurgency
France, U.S., U.K. contribute military, humanitarian aid

Chadian soldiers watching as a UN vehicle from a United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) convoy heads towards the UNHCR camp in N'Gouboua.
Photographer: Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty Images

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By David Malingha

May 12, 2016 at 11:00 PM UTC

Updated on

May 13, 2016 at 3:05 PM UTC

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As a regional military offensive weakens the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, French President Francois Hollande is set to push for the rebuilding of a region where the seven-year conflict has killed thousands and caused at least $9 billion worth of damage.

At a meeting Saturday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, Hollande and regional leaders will discuss how to develop the impoverished region around Lake Chad and re-establish state authority, while keeping the military pressure on Boko Haram, according to French officials. The Jihadist group no longer controls big expanses of territory as it did a year ago after the war spread to Nigeria’s neighbors, though it continues to carry out suicide bombings and massacres in remote villages.