President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that terrorism financing must be curtailed in order to halt senseless killings by extremists.

His spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement said Buhari spoke Saturday evening at the meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The President maintained that “concerted efforts must be made to not only dismantle the network between transnational organised crimes and terrorist organisations, but also to block the payment of ransom to terrorist groups.”

Buhari said Nigeria remained committed to supporting counter terrorism efforts within the African Union and the United Nations.

He called for resolute and coordinated initiatives by developing an AU data base of persons or groups and entities involved in terrorist acts for use by law enforcement agents.

“Nigeria believes that the timely establishment of this tool at the continental level will be strategic in this fight,’’ he added.

Buhari expressed concern over the increasing threats posed by transnational terrorism and condemned the continued activities of the terrorist groups in Africa, and around the world.

He stressed that collaborative measures must be taken to disrupt the recruitment of terrorists, their financing networks and the movement of foreign fighters.

Buhari added: “Terrorism cannot be defeated only through military force and law enforcement measures.

”We need to adopt a multifaceted approach of good governance, economic development and creation of job opportunities for our youth.”

Linking terrorist activities to climate change, the President reiterated Nigeria’s “important call for global action to support the recharging of the Lake Chad Basin,” which had shrunk by over 80 per cent.

He noted that this had impacted negatively on the livelihood of millions of people in the countries of the Basin.

“There is considerable evidence that the environmental state of the Lake contributed to the radicalisation of jobless youth who joined Boko Haram”, he said.