UN Security Council begins Africa trip focused on Boko Haram

FILE- In this Monday Aug. 29, 2016 file photo, a malnourished child receives heath care at a feeding center run by Doctors Without Borders in Maiduguri Nigeria. The U.N. Security Council on Friday, March. 3, 2017 kicked off a visit to spotlight Africa's worst humanitarian crisis as millions face hunger amid the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region. ( AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE- In this Sunday Aug. 28, 2016 file photo a top view of one of the biggest camp for people displaced by Islamist Extremist in Maiduguri, Nigeria.The U.N. Security Council on Friday, March. 3, 2017 kicked off a visit to spotlight Africa's worst humanitarian crisis as millions face hunger amid the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region. ( AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File) (The Associated Press)

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – The United Nations Security Council has begun a West Africa visit to examine the threat posed by Boko Haram to the countries most affected by the Islamic extremist group.

The diplomats are in Cameroon on Friday for meetings with top officials and an encounter with the multinational force that has been fighting the Nigeria-based group.

Council members also plan to go to Chad and Niger, then on to Nigeria, where they will visit a camp in the north for people displaced by Boko Haram. On Friday, officials said three suicide bombers killed themselves and set fuel tankers ablaze in Maiduguri city.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram's seven-year uprising has killed more than 20,000 people and driven 2.6 million from their homes. Now the group has moved into the three neighboring countries.