A wave of violence hours after Nigeria's government announced a truce with Boko Haram raised doubt on Sunday about whether more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist militants will really be released, deflating the new hopes of their parents.
Leaders of Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Benin on Tuesday announced plans to step up the fight against Boko Haram with an additional battalion and a command center to tackle the militants whose insurgency has spread beyond Nigeria, a statement said.
Chad's government accused the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Mali on Friday of failing to relieve its contingent in the country's volatile north and neglecting to support it, a day after five Chadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.
