Seeing Nigeria’s largely ineffective response to Boko Haram, France is trying to get traditionally-suspicious West African neighbors to work together in a regional taskforce to combat the terrorist group, as it steps up its gruesome campaign before Nigeria’s presidential election in February.

The leaders of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon had already met in Paris in May, and promised to share intelligence, coordinate action, and monitor borders.  But since then, there appears to be little tangible cooperation between Nigeria and its neighbors.

“Everybody distrusts everybody.  We have to get beyond that,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters outside a regional security forum on neutral ground in Dakar, Senegal. 

Paris does not want to get directly involved, and already has thousands of troops tamping down other African hotspots.  Le Drian says his country will provide about a dozen advisors to help launch a joint force of 2,800 soldiers to tackle Boko Haram – the very task force that was agreed to in July but has yet to see the light of day.

The situation is urgent.  Boko Haram has grown more brazen and bloodthirsty throughout the year.  Scores of civilians die every time Boko Haram attacks a village in northeast Nigeria where it claims to be establishing an Islamic caliphate, and hundreds flee over Nigeria’s borders, creating a refugee problem in Cameroon and Niger.