President Buhari

Nigeria has yet to decide whether to join a Saudi-led alliance to fight the militant group Islamic State, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced a 34-nation Islamic military coalition, a move welcomed by the United States, which has been urging greater regional efforts to push back Islamic State, now in control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.

However, there has been confusion over the initiative, with some of the countries named as members of the coalition caught unawares by the announcement.

“Nigeria has been formally invited to be a member of the alliance and President Buhari is looking into it,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said  in the first official comment from Abuja.

“A decision to join has not been taken yet. Nigeria is not in or out.”