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Soldiers on AU sanctioned mission
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The
government of Botswana on Monday said it so far has no plans to respond to a
call by African Union (AU) to offer military assistance to Nigeria, which is
under siege from Boko Haram militants, Xinhua News Agency reports.
In
a statement released last week, the chairperson of AU commission Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, stressed the urgency of a coordinated African and international
response, in view of the increasing threat that the Boko Haram terrorist group
and terrorism in general poses to regional peace and security.
Botswana
government spokesperson Jeff Ramsay on Monday revealed there are currently no
plans to send any troops to Nigeria, before referring further questions to the
Ministry of Defense, Justice and Security.
"At
the moment I don't know of any plans to send troops to Nigeria," said
Ramsay.
For
his part, Director of Protocol and Public Affairs at the Botswana Defense Force
(BDF), Tebo Dikole said the BDF is governed by the BDF Act which dictates that
they take orders from the Commander in Chief, who is the president Ian Khama.
"If
the president prescribes that we do something, then we act on his instructions
without question," he said.
Dikole
further explained that Botswana, being a Southern African Development Community
(SADC) member state, is unlikely to partake in a peacekeeping mission in
Nigeria as it does not fall within the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) that is applicable to Nigeria.
Botswana troops have in the
past participated in peacekeeping missions in other countries. In 1992-1993,
Botswana joined a United States led coalition force to restore peace in
Somalia. BDF officers also joined a UN peacekeeping mission in Mozambique in
1993-1994 and another SADC military intervention in Lesotho in 1998.
Furthermore, in 2004 Botswana sent troops to an AU mission in Dafur, Sudan.
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