African Union has agreed to join forces in battling the dreaded Boko Haram sect by sending 7,500 troops to combat insurgency in the North-East Nigeria, an African Union official said yesterday.

The move came after the council urged heads of state to endorse the deployment of troops from five West African countries to fight the terror group, said the head of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, Samil Chergui.

African leaders, who are members of the 54-nation African Union, had a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, during a two-day summit that ended yesterday.

U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, earlier said he supported the AU’s move to send a force to fight Boko Haram, which is increasing its attacks as Nigeria prepares for Feb. 14 elections. Thousands have been killed in the 5-year insurgency.

African nations have opened up a new international front in the war on terror. On Thursday, neighbouring Chad sent a warplane and troops that drove the extremists out of a North-Eastern Nigeria border town in the first of such act by foreign troops on Nigerian soil.

Adapted from Newswatch Times