Nigeria vows to protect May Africa forum

Source:Reuters Published: 2014-4-16 0:28:02

Nigeria pledged on Tuesday to deploy more than 6,000 police and soldiers to protect a World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja in May, a day after a bomb attack by suspected Islamist militants on the capital's outskirts killed dozens.

African heads of state and business leaders are due to attend the May 7-9 WEF event - based on the flagship gatherings in Davos, Switzerland - where Nigeria's government wants to showcase the top oil producer's newly acquired status as the largest economy on the continent.

Monday's bombing at a crowded bus station killed 71 people, the deadliest ever attack on Abuja area, and has raised questions about the government's ability to protect the capital from Boko Haram's bloody insurgency that risks spreading from the Islamist group's heartland in the northeast.

Ahead of elections in February, President Goodluck Jonathan is under intense pressure to contain the five-year insurrection.

Boko Haram wants to carve an Islamic state out of a country split between Muslims living largely in the north and Christians mostly in the south, and the Boko Haram fighters have shown that they can strike further south and in the central zone.

Reuters

Posted in: Africa

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