The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday visited the Presidential Villa Abuja, where he held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari over the State of affairs of Nigeria.
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that Guterres was in Borno State on Tuesday where he met with some repentant terrorists and advocated for their re-integration into society, especially those of who surrendered to military authorities voluntarily.
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Sources within the presidency revealed that the meeting between both leaders will centre around security challenges bedevilling Nigeria and solutions open to the country to end the wave of insecurity which is almost bringing the country to its knees.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that the UN scribe, António Guterres had on Tuesday arrived in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on the third and final leg of his tour of West Africa.
Mr Guterres was initially scheduled to travel to the town of Banki, near the Cameroonian border, to meet victims of the Boko Haram insurgency to highlight the humanitarian crisis in the region. But officials say that trip has now been cancelled.
Rather, Mr Guterres is meeting victims of the conflict in the city of Maiduguri as well as former Boko Haram militants who have laid down their arms, renounced violence and surrendered to the Nigerian authorities.
It’s not exactly clear why his visit to Banki was cancelled.
But a spokesperson for the Borno state governor told reporters the decision was taken due to what he called ‘some circumstances’ without disclosing details.
Meanwhile, Africa Daily News, New York reports that the insurgency which began in 2009 has killed nearly 350,000 people and displaced millions of others in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad according to the UN.
Mr Guterres earlier said the humanitarian crisis in the region required more international support to tackle. He also called for more military assistance to Niger, including equipment and finance to enable it to deal with the various extremist groups.
