France, yesterday, declared that the Boko Haram sect will be treated like Al-Qaeda, as the sect continues unleashing terror in Nigeria.
French Ambassador to Nigeria, Jacques Champagne de Labriolle, who made the declaration in Abuja said his country would not hesitate to offer intelligence support, pointing out that collective effort was needed to tackle insurgency.
He made the remarks while speaking with newsmen at the reception organised by the Chinese Embassy to mark the assumption of duty of the new ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie in Abuja.
“As a matter of fact, we live in a situation that is very different from what happened before. Before, we had international network and people on ground and each with a local course, the connection now is much simpler to establish.
“Therefore, we believe the mobilization against Boko Haram should be the same as the mobilization we have seen before against al-Qaeda and for the same reason.
“These people cannot stop; it will only be getting worse and (it) has to be dealt with collectively. It is well known that a lot of connections are existing among a kind of dark side of globalization, where you can find drugs, money and people,” he said.
Labriolle said his country offered to assist in finding the missing girls because “Boko Haram problem is not only a Nigerian problem but a regional and international problem.
“As for the girls, the idea is to localise where they are; this requires intelligence. What can be done in Nigeria on the ground will be done by Nigerians, not by us. What we can do is to help in intelligence. Locating 200 girls is both easy and difficult, depending on the size of the population of a country,” he said.
