Nigeria holds talks on stopping Boko Haram

Nigeria ishosting an international summit on Saturdayto discuss the violence caused by extremist group Boko Haram.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari welcomed leaders from West and Central Africa from Benin, as well asChad, Niger and Cameroon,wherethe Islamist grouphas launched attacks..

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French President Francois Hollande and high-ranking diplomats from the U.S., U.K. and European Unionare also attending the talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Upon his arrival,Hollandespoke of the challengesfacing Nigeria and some of the progress in battling the militants.

"Nigeria has been the main battleground. And do you know when we came in, Boko Haram was holding at least 40 local governments out of the 770 local governments we have. And they have forced their flag, and they call the place a caliphate. Which kind of caliphate they didn't say, but they called it a caliphate. But now they are not holding any local governments."

The United Nations Security Councilhas expressed concern over the terror group's links to ISIS and is calling the summit a "crucial initiative."

In a statement issued Friday, the council called on Boko Haram to "immediately and unequivocally cease all violence and all abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law."

It also demands the immediate release of the thousands of people held captive by Boko Haram, including 219 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted in April 2014.

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Some 20,000 people have died and 2.1 million become refugees in Boko Haram's nearly seven-year uprising to create an Islamic state, but U.S.-backed African governments have made military advances against Islamic extremists.

Seven months after the abduction at the school in Chibok, Boko Haramstormedanother school inDamasak, using it as a military base,before withdrawing in March 2015.About 300 elementary school students were among their400 captives.

MausiSegun, a Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, recently said thosechildren remain missing.

"We know that it is not just 219 missing schoolgirls, that Amnesty Internatioinal estimates there are more than 2,000 women and children who have been abducted by Boko Haram," said freelance journalist Anna Cunningham, reporting from Lagos.

Last year, the extremist groupreleaseda video pledgingtheirofficial allegiance to ISIS.

There are concerns over reportsthat Boko Haram fighters are now in Libya and are training and fighting there alongswide ISIS.