WASHINGTON (AP) – Nigeria’s new president, Muhammadu Buhari, is meeting with President Barack Obama to shore up relations between the U.S. and the nation with Africa’s largest economy, and to seek additional assistance in the fight against the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, whose deadly rampages have killed thousands across the country’s north.
Just last Friday, at least 15 people were killed in suicide bombings at open-air praying grounds on one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar.
Obama’s meeting with Buhari is expected to also cover Nigeria’s economy, which has suffered under the decline in oil prices, additional security issues and government corruption.
U.S. relations with Nigeria soured over failures by the government and military, including the inability to locate more than 200 schoolgirls, most of them Christian, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram from the northern town of Chibok in April 2014. The abduction led to international condemnation and a campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls” that reached as far as the White House.
Then-President Goodluck Jonathan was angered by the U.S. refusal to sell his government helicopter gunships and retaliated by halting a U.S. military training program.