As it was just reported, the US Marines have just begun their patrol on the streets of Abuja to provide safety for all the delegates of the seventh World Economic Forum in Africa, hosted by Nigeria at the time of terrorist threat from Boko Haram extremists.
The last few weeks in Nigeria have been extremely stressful due to several terror attacks of Boko Haram Islamists who set off 2 bombs in Nyanya, which is satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory. The biggest attack yet was when the Islamist group abducted over 200 girls from Government Secondary School in Chibok and 11 more in Warabe village, both in Borno.
Despites the attacks and possible danger, the government of Nigeria was determined to hold this summit aimed at addressing the socio-economic development of Aftica. The summit that began yesterday will last for three days and is to be attended by more than 10 heads of governments and states and 900 delegates from over 70 countries.
At the moment, there are over 50 executives of top global corporations in Abuja along with presidents of Algeria, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Rwanda, Benin, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Togo, Liberia and Senegal. Also there is Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of Britain, Lula da Silva – former President of Brazil at the summit.
US President Barack Obama decided to send Marines unit to guard the security of delegates at the summit. These marines will join over 6000 Nigerian security operatives that include policemen, soldiers and personnel of the Department of State Security. These marines are highly trained soldiers who have been previously deployed to areas undergoing serious conflicts and terrorism. After the summit, these soldiers are supposed to stay and help the authorities of Nigeria to locate the missing Chibok schoolgirls who are believed to be somewhere in the Sambisa forest.
According to the words of a representative of US security source: “They are not going to be directly involved in the World Economic Forum event as their brief is to train the Nigerian security services. It should be expected that Nigerian agents will handle the security of the summit.”
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