ABUJA, June 12, 2014 (AFP) – Nigeria’s military indicated on Thursday that it could follow the example of Sri Lanka in fighting terror, to bring an end to an increasingly deadly insurgency by Boko Haram militants. A high-ranking military delegation from the South Asian island nation, led by Chief of Defence Staff General Jagath Jayasuriya, was in the capital, Abuja, to meet their Nigerian counterparts to share experience and expertise.
The visit came after Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain held talks with his opposite number, Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday and the leaders pledged greater co-operation in defence and counter-terrorism.
Sri Lanka, with Jayasuriya as army chief, brought its decades-long civil war with ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels to an end in May 2009 after a devastating military onslaught.
But the country’s military has been dogged ever since by allegations that it killed 40,000 Tamil civilians in the terrifying final days of the conflict and claims, which it denies, that it committed war crimes.
According to a statement from Nigeria’s defence headquarters, Jayasuriya told delegates there were similarities between the security situation in Nigeria and Sri Lanka at the height of the