Nigeria holds security summit on Boko Haram

Nigeria hosts a security summit on ending the threat from Boko Haram, with increasing signs of closer military cooperation between regional powers and international support.
French President Francois Hollande, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's top diplomat Philip Hammond are among the senior foreign dignitaries expected in Abuja.
The leaders of Nigeria's neighbours Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger are also invited, along with delegations from the European Union and the West African and Central African blocs.
Nigeria said this week "the successful conclusion of ongoing military operations" and "the speedy resolution of the humanitarian crises" would dominate the talks.

Boko Haram was named in the latest Global Terrorism Index as "the most deadly terrorist group in the world" in 2014. An estimated 20,000 people have been killed since 2009.
But Nigeria's military maintains its fight-back since early 2015 has the Islamists in disarray and recently announced the launch of operations inside the rebels' Sambisa Forest stronghold.

"The idea is to be able to announce (at the summit)... that this sanctuary no longer exists," a source close to Chadian President Idriss Deby told AFP earlier this month.
"That is a military and also a political imperative."
Yet there are mounting concerns for the future of more than 2.6 million people displaced by the violence, with many living in host communities or camps and affected by chronic food shortages.

Borno -- the Nigerian state worst-hit by the violence -- last month said there was a "food crisis" and it needed $5.9 billion (5.1 billion euros) to rebuild shattered homes and infrastructure.
The election of former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria's president has given fresh impetus to the military counter-insurgency.
Buhari, who last December said the militants were "technically" defeated despite repeated suicide attacks, has pushed hard for a new regional force, which was supposed to have deployed last July.
The status of the African Union-backed force, comprising some 8,500 troops from Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, is likely to figure prominently in Saturday's talks.

Plugging gaps and improving coordination between armies operating largely independently is seen as vital, with Boko Haram now thought to be in remote border areas on and around Lake Chad.