Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, visited Chad for talks with regional military heads on speeding up the deployment of a 8,700-strong task force to combat Boko Haram terrorists.

“The meeting discussed modality for the deployment of joint force to two command posts in Nigeria and Cameroon,” Acting Nigerian military spokesman, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said today in an e-mailed statement quoted by Bloomberg. “Also, officers seconded to the Multi-National Joint Task Force in N’Djamena were ordered to report immediately to their post, as operation at the force headquarters has commenced,” he added.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to crush insurgent group Boko Haram, which has waged a six-year rebellion to impose its version of Islamic law in Africa’s most populous nation. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Buhari yesterday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and said he was “hopeful” for the rapid deployment of the regional force to battle the militants.

•Photo shows General Olonisakin.