LONDON (Sputnik) — The United Kingdom will allocate 40 million pounds ($57.4 million) over the next four years to assist Nigeria in the fight against the Boko Haram extremist group, the Foreign Office said in a statement Saturday.
"The UK’s continuing support to Nigeria in tackling Boko Haram with nearly £40m of counter-terrorist and counter-extremism support over the next four years, includes the training of almost 1,000 Nigerian military personnel for deployment to the North East of Nigeria on counter-insurgency operations," the statement published on the UK government's website reads.
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is taking part in the second Regional Security Summit underway in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
The Boko Haram extremist group began large-scale attacks in northeast Nigeria in 2009. In early 2015, the group expanded attacks into neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad.