The American support, contained in a press statement issued by the White House late on Wednesday, is to provide assistance to France which has been actively supporting Nigeria’s French speaking neighbors—Niger and Chad—in their fight against Boko Haram insurgents as well as Mali, which is battling Islamist extremism.
The three French-speaking have been in the forefront of the war against the dreaded Islamist terrorist group.
Curiously, America’s new support did not mention Nigeria, the country worst hit by Boko Haram’s terrorist assaults. The conspicuous omission of Nigeria has raised questions in diplomatic circles whether the apparent snub represented a continuing fallout from strained relations between the Goodluck Jonathan administration and President Barack Obama over the former’s original questionable response to the Boko Haram menace.
