Nigeria and France will collaborate to deradicalise Islamist groups active in the country and across West Africa, the Nigerian presidency said.

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and French Prime Minister Bernarde Cazeneuve held bilateral talks in Paris Friday where they discussed issues fueling Islamist radicalism and steps necessary to curb it, Osinbajo’s office said in an e-mailed statement.

“One thing left for us to deal with is deradicalisation, defeating the ideology behind the mindless killing and violence,” Osinbajo said in the statement.

Boko Haram Islamist militants have waged a violent campaign, in which tens of thousands of people have died, since 2009 to impose its version of Islamic rule in Africa’s most populous country of more than 180 million. (Bloomberg)

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