US to send team to Nigeria to renew cooperation over Boko Haram

The United States has shown interest in working with the new government of president Muhammadu Buhari over the fight against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. A team will be sent to Nigeria in the next few weeks to discuss ways to renew cooperation, according to US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

''With the new government we are optimistic we can reset the relationship,'' she told a congressional hearing. ''We want to work with him and have expressed that to him.''

In his inauguration speech, Buhari vowed to defeat Boko Haram and called the group, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in March, ''mindless'' and ''godless.''

Tensions emerged between the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Obama administration last year over corruption and human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in its campaign to crush Boko Haram.