AFP/Abuja

President Francois Hollande said yesterday that France stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nigeria in its battle against Boko Haram, vowing to support its fight against Islamist militancy as it had done in Mali.
Hours before Hollande’s arrival in Abuja, hundreds of suspected militant fighters attacked three areas in northeastern Adamawa state, destroying homes and businesses with heavy weaponry and explosives and killing at least 32 people (see story above).
The attack came after 43 people, mostly students, were killed in a night-time raid by suspected insurgents at a secondary school in Yobe state on Tuesday.
Hollande, guest of honour for celebrations to mark 100 years since Nigeria’s unification, expressed his condolences, calling the Yobe attack “brutal” and “unjustified”.
“Nigeria is today confronted with the terrorism of Boko Haram,” he told delegates at a security conference attended by dozens of African heads of state and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.
“I assure you that your struggle is also our struggle. We will always stand ready not only to provide our political support but our help every time you need it, because the struggle against terrorism is also the struggle for democracy.”
Hollande is on a two-day visit to Nigeria and had been expected to hold talks on trade and investment with his Nigerian counterpart Goodluck Jonathan.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and is tipped to become the continent’s largest economy in the coming months.
But with the insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast, France’s military action against Islamist fighters in Mali last year and its peacekeeping efforts in the conflict-torn Central African Republic, security has been pushed to the fore.
Hollande’s office announced that he would travel to Bangui today to meet French troops, his counterpart Catherine Samba Panza and religious authorities in the country, beset by months of violence between the Christian majority and Muslim minority.