by Chi Ibe

The United States government says it has spent almost $500 million on fighting the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009. This was said by the US Charge d’Affaires to the African Union, Susan Page yesterday.

She was responding to a question on how much the US has committed at the Africa Regional Media Hub telephonic media briefing on Thursday.

“I believe that it is upward of $485 million, just from the State Department side in certain, you know, the way that we have to resource these things from different elements of our foreign affairs budget,” she said.“But it is close to $500 million, I believe.

“And like I said, most of that is bilateral assistance, so it is going to various countries in the Lake Chad Basin region to strengthen their own borders, and other support and capacity building.”

The US Mission to the African Union was established in 2006. It is the first non-African observer mission to the union, and has spawned a Chinese PRC Mission and a European Union Mission.

YWriter