India Ready to Train African Anti-Terrorist Forces to Fight Boko Haram

India is ready to train anti-terrorist forces in any African countries that seek assistance in repelling the threat posed by the Boko Haram militant group, a joint secretary at India’s Ministry of External Affairs told Sputnik Tuesday.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — The creation of a common front on anti-terrorism measures is on the agenda of the third India-Africa Summit being hosted in New Delhi on October 26-29. As many as 54 African nations are taking part in the event.

"We will help increase the capacity building of the regional forces so as to technically equip them to counter Boko Haram in a better way, which include training them and also intelligence sharing," Sanjeev Kohli said.

He added that in the near future "the officials of the Defense Ministries of both India and Cameroon will sit together and understand the technical requirements" of India’s counter-terrorism assistance requested by the African country.

"Chad has also sought our assistance in this regard," the joint secretary pointed out.

Boko Haram started staging terrorist attacks in northeastern Nigeria as early as 2009 expanding its reach to Cameroon four years later and moving on to Chad and Niger in 2015.

In March, the group announced that it had affiliated itself with ISIL, which seeks to declare a caliphate in Muslim-majority countries in the region.