From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

FRENCH President, Francois Hol­lande, has noted that despite the suc­cesses recorded by the Nigerian gov­ernment against the terrorist sect, Boko Haram, it remains a threat.

Hollande stated this at the presidential villa, Abuja at the end of bilateral talks yesterday hosted by President Muham­madu Buhari, before the commence­ment of the Second Regional Summit in the Federal Capital Territory.

The French President, who com­mended the Nigerian military for im­pressively degrading the terrorist group, urged Buhari’s government not to relent over the fight against insurgency.

While admitting that terrorism was feeding on the weaknesses of the global financial system, Hollande said fighting corruption as well as all the systems that enable all forms of trafficking will fur­ther weaken terrorists groups.

Hollande was in the country to join other regional and western leaders to forge closer military co-operation and assistance in tackling the threat of ter­rorism and its dire humanitarian conse­quences.

President Buhari, while celebrating the degrading of the sect that has led to the liberation of all 14 local govern­ment areas initially under their control, said the main concern now is to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure as well as return the over two million Inter­nally Displaced Persons to their homes.

The President who de­scribed the issue of security as harrowing, decried the fact that terrorism with the help of technology and millions of vol­unteers respect no borders .

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According to him, “It is a lot of concern for people of conscience to learn that in Nigeria, we have more than two million IDPs, most of them women and children.

“Boko Haram has preoccupied this discussion both in and out of the bilateral discussions. We do appreciate the efforts, the suc­cesses recorded by this admin­istration. I was told sometimes ago that a hundred articulated tankers leave Kano on a daily basis, seven days a week to go to Maiduguri. From there traders from Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cam­eroon, converge to transact their business. So you have at least two million Nigerians, from wheel barrow pushers to traders that benefit from Maiduguri market before Boko Haram struck.

“Now if you conduct a survey, that traffic is gradually coming back. You need to ask about this area for you to understand the successes scored by this govern­ment with the help of G7, includ­ing France in terms of training our military personnel, provision of hardware to keep on push­ing Boko Haram out of Nigeria. Nigeria has been the main battle ground. We were not aware of their international colouration un­til they claimed that they are loyal to ISIS. So I assure you that we are doing our best”.

Buhari said, “When we came in, they were controlling 14 local governments where they hoisted their flags and declared them re­publics, or caliphates of some sort. But now, they are not hold­ing any local government. They are exploiting available technol­ogy in terms of using improvised explosive device on soft targets – in mosques, churches, markets and motor parks.

“Many of the territories they held have been freed, and now our main problem is the rehabili­tation of infrastructure destroyed – educational, health, bridges etc. We have made a comprehensive survey and very soon we will start to fix them.

“On the IDP s, more than 60 per cent of them are women and children, and more than 60 per cent of the children are orphans. This is a pathetic situation and is a major problem we are going to face in this country.”