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Nigerian president replaces chiefs of defence, army, navy and air force Nigerian president replaces all his military chiefs
(about 4 hours later)
The Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, has replaced the country's chiefs of defence, army, navy and air force, an official statement has said, without giving a reason. Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, fired all his military chiefs on Thursday and appointed an air force officer from the troubled north-east as the top military commander, in a major shakeup of the high command.
Nigeria is struggling to end a four-and-a-half-year insurgency by Boko Haram, an extremist sect which has killed thousands in its attempt to create an Islamic state in a religiously mixed country of 170 million people. Officials in neighbouring Cameroon, meanwhile, said Nigerian jets dropped bombs that exploded around a Cameroonian border post on Wednesday, as Cameroonian forces were pulled into fighting between Nigerian troops and Islamic extremists. At least one woman on Cameroonian soil was killed by stray bullets and five other civilians were wounded.
Jonathan is also facing a political crisis within his ruling People's Democratic party (PDP) and mass defections to an increasingly powerful opposition. Air Marshal Alex Badeh, 57, has the top job as chief of defence staff and services, with immediate effect, and there are new chiefs of the army, navy and air force.
The PDP is holding a meeting on Thursday to decide the future of its chairman, Bamanga Tukur, a Jonathan ally who has been under pressure to quit from Jonathan's opponents. Badeh's home state of Adamawa as well as neighbouring Borno and Yobe states have been under a state of emergency since May. Thousands of security forces deployed to the area quickly drove Boko Haram insurgents out of major urban centres but there has been a resurgence in attacks recently.
Africa's biggest oil producer is also blighted by rampant oil theft in the Niger delta, where criminal gangs tapping into pipelines can cut out hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of output and cause devastating environmental damage. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and one of its biggest oil producers, is battling Islamic extremists in the north-east and there are fears the rebellion could spread beyond Nigeria's porous borders. On Wednesday the violence affected neighbouring Cameroon, which has felt fallout from the conflict before.
All the four new appointed chiefs of staff are experienced military officials in their mid-50s. Nigerian officials have complained that Cameroonian security forces are not doing enough to stop the insurgents from using Cameroon as a safe haven to launch attacks in Nigeria. Nigeria's military has said that fighters from Cameroon, Chad and Niger have been found fighting alongside Boko Haram.
The shakeup of Nigeria's military comes after recent high-profile attacks by Boko Haram.
On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in a busy commercial centre of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital that is the birthplace of Boko Haram. At least 43 people were killed, according to a mortuary official, who said some bodies were burned beyond recognition.
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