Five African states have agreed to form a new military coalition to fight Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgency that has ravaged the region in recent years, in the first significant move against the group by Nigeria’s new president.

Muhammadu Buhari, a former general who was inaugurated two weeks ago, promised to defeat Boko Haram during his campaign to be president. The new force, which will comprise of 8,700 troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, is expected to begin operations before the end of next month.

The rise of Boko Haram Show all 20 1 /20 The rise of Boko Haram The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram The leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau delivers a message. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the mass killings in the north-east Nigerian town of Baga in a video where he warned the massacre “was just the tip of the iceberg”. As many as 2,000 civilians were killed and 3,700 homes and business were destroyed in the 3 January 2015 attack on the town near Nigeria's border with Cameroon AFP The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram People displaced as a result of Boko Haram attacks in the northeast region of Nigeria, are seen near their tents at a faith-based camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Yola, Adamawa State. Boko Haram says it is building an Islamic state that will revive the glory days of northern Nigeria's medieval Muslim empires, but for those in its territory life is a litany of killings, kidnappings, hunger and economic collapse The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Nitsch Eberhard Robert, a German citizen abducted and held hostage by suspected Boko Haram militants, is seen as he arrives at the Yaounde Nsimalen International airport after his release in Yaounde, Cameroon on 21 January 2015 The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Officials of the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) visit victims of a bomb blast in Gombe at the Specialist Hospital in Gombe. According to local reports at least six people were killed and 11 wounded after a bomb blast in a marketplace in Nigeria's northeastern state of Gombe on 16 January 2015. Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been blamed for a string of recent attacks in the North East of Nigeria The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram People gather at the site of a bomb explosion in a area know to be targeted by the militant group Boko Haram in Kano on 28 November 2014 The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram People gather to look at a burnt vehicle following a bomb explosion that rocked the busiest roundabout near the crowded Market in Maiduguri, Borno State on 1 July 2014. A truck exploded in a huge fireball killing at least 15 people in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the city repeatedly hit by Boko Haram Islamists The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram President Goodluck Jonathan visits Nigerian Army soldiers fighting Boko Haram Getty Images The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Displaced people from Baga listen to Goodluck Jonathan after the Boko Haram killings AFP/Getty The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan speaking to troops during a visit to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State; most of the region has been overrun by Boko Haram AFP/Getty The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Members of the Nigerian military patrolling in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria, close to the scene of attacks by Boko Haram EPA The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, appears in a video in which he warns Cameroon it faces the same fate as Nigeria AFP The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Nana Shettima, the wife of Borno Governor, Kashim Shettima (C) weeps as she speaks with school girls from the government secondary school Chibok that were kidnapped by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, and later escaped in Chibok The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram South Africans protest in solidarity against the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram and what protesters said was the failure of the Nigerian government and international community to rescue them, during a march to the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Boko Haram militants have seized the town in north-eastern Nigeria that nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from in April 2014 AFP The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram A soldier stands guard in front of burnt buses after an attack in Abuja. Twin blasts at a bus station packed with morning commuters on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital killed dozens of people, in what appeared to be the latest attack by Boko Haram Islamists, April 2014 The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram The aftermath of the attack, when Boko Haram fighters in trucks painted in military colours killed 51 people in Konduga in February 2014 AFP/Getty Images The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau (with papers) in a video grab taken in July 2014 AFP/Getty The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Ruins of burnt out houses in the north-eastern settlement of Baga, pictured after Boko Haram attacks in 2013 AP The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram A Boko Haram attack in Nigeria, 2013 AFP/Getty Images The rise of Boko Haram Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader AP

The agreement was announced on Thursday evening after talks in Abuja. The coalition will have, “the military capacity to sustain the push against the insurgents, who also have the uncanny ability to adapt and rejig their operational strategies,” Mr Buhari said before the discussions.

The move marks a step forward for the countries directly affected by Boko Haram’s violence. Under Mr Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, both Cameroon and Chad complained that their efforts to defeat the militants were being stymied by Nigeria’s refusal to let their troops cross the border, which allowed Boko Haram to regroup and strengthen in Nigeria’s lawless north eastern frontier.

A soldier defends the village of Mabass, in the north of Cameroon (Getty) (Getty Images)

Colonel Joseph Nouma, the commander of the Cameroonian special forces unit tasked with fighting Boko Haram, told The Independent two days before Mr Buhari’s inauguration that his troops were becoming frustrated by the Nigerians’ opposition to foreign fighters inside its territory. “The Nigerians will not allow us to cross the border and chase Boko Haram,” he complained.

Asked about the complaints, Mr Buhari hinted at a change of policy. “Terrorism has no frontiers,” he said.

Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shjeka (AFP/Getty)

If Mr Buhari has dedicated his first weeks in office to tacking Boko Haram, the militants, who in March sworn allegiance to Isis in the Middle East, have marked his coming into office with a increase in their attacks. More than 150 people have been killed in several attacks and suicide bombings in Nigeria since the 29 May.

The latest, on six villages in Borno state near the Boko Haram stronghold in the Sambisa forest, left 37 people dead on 10 June.

The new military coalition will have a budget of $30m, and will be headed by a Nigerian general. In order to assuage competing interests, it will be based in the Chadian capital, N'djamena. Mr Buhari rejected a request from the other countries that the leadership of the mission be rotated.