President Muhammadu Buhari has told a gathering that included Queen Elizabeth II of England and other Heads of State and Government participating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) holding in Malta that terrorists had killed 10,000 Nigerians and displaced over 2 million internally.
A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said Buhari spoke at a banquet hosted by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II for participants in the meeting.
To stop these casualties, Buhari called for the establishment of a Commonwealth committee to oversee the rendering of greater assistance and support to Nigeria and other member-countries that had been adversely affected by the scourge of terrorism.
Adesina said Buhari expressed the hope that the committee would be established before the next meeting of the organisation.
The president said he also expected the committee to visit member-countries of the Commonwealth where terrorist organisations had established a foothold with a view to evolving practical strategies for more meaningful assistance to the affected countries.
Buhari urged the Commonwealth to show greater resolve in helping Nigeria and other developing nations in its ranks to overcome the challenges of economic development, security, terrorism and corruption.
“With the improvement of global communications, terrorism has no borders now. What happened recently in France had a profound effect on all of us, but very few countries realize that Nigeria has suffered terrorist casualties of over 10,000 killed in the last six years.
“Right now, we have over two million internally displaced persons, most of whom are women and children, and most of the children are orphans,” the president told the Queen and Commonwealth Heads of State and Government.
He informed the gathering of efforts by Nigeria and other members of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to curb the menace of Boko Haram and added that the problem of terrorism in West Africa had been aggravated by the collapse of the Gadhafi regime in Libya.
