The Theatre Commander, Operation Hadin Kai, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar has disclosed that the infiltration of foreign mercenaries in the joint operations area has significantly escalated the threat posed by terrorist groups like the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jamatu Ahli Al-Sunna lil Da’wa Wal Jihad (JAS) better known as Boko Haram.
Maj.-Gen. Abubakar said the foreign mercenaries facilitate tactical and strategic training for these terrorists, leading to the use of drones in the theatre.
Abubakar stated this while speaking with Defence Correspondents who were on media tour to the theatre of operation on Tuesday in Maiduguri, Borno State.
He highlighted the arrest of four Pakistani nationals involving in arms running with the terrorists.
“The infiltration of foreign mercenaries in the joint operations area has significantly escalated the threat posed by terrorist groups like ISWAP and JAS.
“The recent arrest of four Pakistani nationals, whose initial investigation suggests that they deal in arms running with terrorists is instructive.
“It suffices to mention that the foreign mercenaries facilitate tactical and strategic training for these terrorists,” Abubakar said.
He added that the recent development of armed drones for attacks and surveillance on troops potentially illustrates the refinement of the terrorist tactics, techniques, and procedure by mercenaries advanced improvised explosive device fabrication and placement of public traps.
“The growing influence of these mercenaries is evident in the terrorists’ increasing coordinated assets resulting in higher casualties among troops and greater equipment losses.
“This alarming trend calls for an immediate coordinated response, including intensified intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations, as well as strong collaboration between Nigeria and neighbouring nations to disrupt cross-border support network,” Abubakar said.
According to him, the Boko Haram/Islamic States West African Province terrorists were not waging war against the armed forces but against Nigeria.
He said the war against insurgency was an asymmetric warfare that was difficult to fight, urging the media to treat terrorism as war against the nation.
The theatre commander said that troops had continued to make sacrifices to ensure that communities affected by the activities of Boko Haram/ISWAP were stabilised.
He added that the military had also ensured that human rights were upheld in all the lines of operation where they needed to carry out military action.
“We have our troops here in the field spreading different locations during these harsh weather conditions, which can rapidly become also very cold at night.
“So there are heroes, and I tell you, we will do well to appreciate them occasionally and the only way to do that is through the media.
“These are also Nigerians and it is not the terrorists against the armed forces; it is the terrorists against Nigeria as a nation.
“So once we begin to understand this and have a common front, we will be able to make a very tangible progress,’’ he said.
The Chief of Staff, Operation Hadin Kai, Brig.-Gen. Adamu Ibrahim, explaining why female terrorists were not being killed or prosecuted, said that Nigeria was signatory to international law of armed conflict.
Ibrahim said that the law explicitly protects combatants who are no longer actively participating in the fighting as well as women and children.
According to the chief of staff, Boko Haram are Nigerian citizens and are fully eligible to have wives and children.
“As long as their wives and children do not take up arms and engage in direct combat operations in this, then they are not Boko Haram combatants.
“The Nigerian military fully enforces and upholds human rights laws, and as such, we would not violate the laws against the Boko Haram, by engaging their families,’’ he said.
Giving overview of the activities of OPHK, Maj. Ademola Owolana, said the Joint Tax Force North-East operation was organised to effectively curtail the activities of the insurgents across the entire territory.
Owolana said the operations were being hampered by a number of factors such as drone attacks by terrorists, activities of fifth columnists and planting of IEDs.
He said the troops had continued to show resilience in defeating the terrorists across the theatre of operation with several successes so far recorded.
According to him, in recent attack on Kukawa, the Nigerian troops with support of air components defeated the terrorist onslaught; recovering two motorcycles and neutralising 28 terrorists.
“Furthermore, the terrorists have continued to attack isolated communities in search of logistics, equipment of fighters, close-ledger, and outdoor high-value targets.
“This threat profile suggests desperation of JAS and ISWAP leaders to reassess themselves, demonstrate strength, recruit more fighters, and amass logistics interpolation for future offensive across the theatre,’’ he said.
Earlier, the team lead Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Abu-Mawashi said the media tour was the brain child of the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa to equip Defence Correspondents of first-hand information of what the military was doing.
Abu-Mawashi who is the deputy director Defence Media Operations at the Defence Headquarters said the visit also aims to elicit empathy from reporters who report the day to day activities of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
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