Available statistics availed by the military has indicated that no fewer than 92 soldiers lost their lives in battle against Boko Haram insurgent in the North-East region of Nigeria.
The statistics included army releases and figures from verifiable sources during those terrorist attacks which intensified particularly from July to November 2018.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the fallout of the Boko Haram terrorists’ attacks in November 2018 on Metele, Kangarwa, Malumfatori and Arge areas of Borno State and Buni Gari area of Yobe State have made soldiers to now increasingly lobby being posted to the North-East region.
Recall that on February 10, the Boko Haram terrorists attacked an army base in Goniri community in the Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State, during which two soldiers were injured. On April 1, 15 persons were killed in attacks by the Boko Haram suicide bombers on Bille Shuwa and Alikaranti villages close to Maiduguri, Borno State. Two of the deceased were soldiers. Also on April 21, the Boko Haram insurgents killed three soldiers attached to the 25 Task Force Brigade, Borno State, during a gun battle.
Meanwhile, July 2018 more attacks were recorded on the soldiers with the Al-Barnawi faction of the Boko Haram and the Islamic State West African Province fighters attempting to overrun military bases and cart away the army weaponry.
For instance, in the first week of July 2018, the terrorists overran the army base in Jilli, Yobe State, where over 20 soldiers were reportedly killed. In the same week, they attacked another army location in Bama with an undisclosed number of troops going missing.
The attacks had made the Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, travelled to the North-East on an assessment visit.
Also, Bama attack in Kwakwa and Chingori communities was also said to have recorded the loss of 10 soldiers.
The 233 Battalion troops in the Tarmuwa LGA of Yobe State were also on July 22 ambushed by the insurgents with several military gun trucks said to have been stolen.
The aftermath of these attacks in the last week of July was that the army authorities announced the replacement of the hitherto Commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj Gen Rogers Nicholas, with Maj Gen Abba Dikko.
Yet on July 29, Boko Haram terrorists in three gun trucks attacked the army in Mairari village in the Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State, during which two soldiers were injured. Sixteen terrorists were also killed.
On September 8, the insurgents also staged an attack on an army base in Baga in the Kukawa LGA of Borno State, a day after they invaded another military base in Gudumbali, in the Guzamala LGA.
In both invasions, more than 20 soldiers were said to have been killed, although the army did not confirm the figures.
The then Director, Army Public Relations, Brig Gen Texas Chukwu, had said the terrorists “set some buildings ablaze in the community but no casualty was recorded.”
On September 13, the insurgents attacked the 145 Battalion troops’ base in Damasak, Borno State, while three days later, the insurgents ambushed troops along Bama road in Maiduguri. The troops of 222 Battalion, 22 Brigade, were ambushed but the army was not clear on casualty figures.
In the second week of September, the Boko Haram attacks on military bases again forced the service chiefs – the army chief and the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar – to relocate to the North-East region.
The pockets of attacks continued through October into November with the terrorists attacking an army base on October 28 in the Gashigar area of Borno State.
Three soldiers were killed in the location belonging to the 145 Battalion, when the insurgents invaded the base in 13 gun trucks.
Also, the insurgents attacked Katarko in the Gujba LGA of Yobe State on November 3. It was the 120 Battalion. Days earlier, the terrorists attacked the army base in Kukawa where 16 soldiers were reportedly missing after the invasion.
The most deadly attack in the last quarter of the year was on November 18 when the insurgents attacked the 157 Battalion’s base in Metele, northern Borno State, with the death toll said to be more than 100 soldiers.
The army confirmed a week later that 23 soldiers died and 37 were injured in the Boko Haram’s invasion.
After Metele, however, the insurgents have attacked the military bases in Buni Gari and Gajiram, with some troops of the Nigerian Army said to have fled to Cameroon, Niger Republic and Chad to escape the fire of the insurgents.
Meanwhile, some military sources said the fallout of the Boko Haram terrorists’ attacks in November 2018 have made soldiers to lobby being posted to the North-East region.
The sources said some of those soldiers presently in the North-East also wanted to obtain redeployment.
A Brigadier-General, who spoke with our correspondent, said his cousin who was redeployed to the North-East quit the military and has rather left for a village in the South-South.
The Brig-Gen said, “In the military doctrine, we have what is called cowardice. Soldiers can exhibit cowardice when they hear negative reports. Let me tell you why we have been experiencing attacks in those Lake Chad areas. Those army deployments were intentionally made around Lake Chad to block the Boko Haram’s channels of supply. The Boko Haram understands why the military are blocking their channels and they therefore ensure they keep attacking those bases to open up their own channels of supply.
“There is a way some people have been glorifying the attacks and this makes the soldiers who are there to be afraid. These are very young military officers with families and they can be afraid. Most times when I as a general say I am on my way to the North-East, I get messages from friends and families to be careful. But I am going under escort. Now, imagine soldiers who are just deployed to actually go and fight. This is why some reports are not helpful because they are escalating these attacks, glorifying the terrorists and putting fear in our soldiers. Some of these soldiers read all these online reports and they are afraid. They are avoiding to go to the North-East like a disease.
“I just came back home and I just learnt that one of my cousins who I brought into the army was redeployed. He was supposed to go to the North-East. He ran away. He is in the village riding a motorcycle, because he does not want to die.
“Now, if we have such incidences all over, what will become of our security architecture? Our worries are that while the terrorists are doing theirs, so many media reports reaching soldiers in the North-East are disturbing and pulling down their morale.”
A colonel serving in Abuja confirmed this panic to our correspondent, saying some personnel now increasingly influenced their postings to avoid the North-East.
He said, “Soldiers are trained to die in the course of defending the country’s territorial integrity, but not when you die because there are no adequate equipment. The terrorists know how to strike because they have informants who leak the strengths and weaknesses of the army to them.
“Since there is no specific time frame for soldiers serving in the North-East, some of them are disgruntled and soldiers are lobbying not to be posted there. The increasing attacks in the North-East are dampening the morale of troops and this is why the military authorities usually send the service chiefs to visit and talk to them.”
A corporal who served in the North-East between 2011 and 2016, identified only as Ben, confirmed that the troops were lobbying because of inadequate weapons to defend themselves and the communities.
“You are given only AK-47 rifles to face the Boko Haram terrorists who have machine guns, GPMG, gun trucks and anti-aircraft guns. You are not going to return alive from that war. This is why some soldiers are willing to be redeployed, if it is possible.
“The terrain is not friendly. The land is desert and you need both adequate military and welfare provisions to survive. But these things are mostly not there,” Ben said.
Our correspondent learnt that postings to the North-East are done at any time during the year and there was no specific duration for troops posted to the North-East or any part of the country.
The army had posted new commanders to the North-east region at least two times this year, but the postings of soldiers are largely unannounced because of their numbers.
In the first week of December 2018, the army re-organised Operation Lafiya Dole, the military operation tackling Boko Haram in the North-East, deploying seven new commanders.
The commanders were to head 22 Brigade, 25 Task Force Brigade, 26 Task Force Brigade, 27 Task Force Brigade, 28 Task Force Brigade, 37 Brigade and the Nigeria Police Force operation.
The army said the new deployments were to “inject new hands in the fight against terrorism and other operations.”
Our correspondent could not obtain specific details of deployments of soldiers to these Brigades as the deployments are said to be ongoing.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig Gen Sani Usman, confirmed that there was no specific time frame for rotation of troops deployed to the North-East, noting that soldiers could get a leave or pass from the theatre, depending on their circumstances.
Usman in an interview said some personnel in the North-East theatre of war were specialists, “whose jobs are very critical to the performance of a particular unit and formation.”
He said, “If you are talking about the duration, there is no specific time frame. However, there are provisions where soldiers are allowed to go on passes whenever the need arises. They are also allowed to go on a leave.
“The bottom line is that we are fighting a war and we are defending the territorial sovereignty of our country. I cannot speak on the longest duration anyone has stayed. It depends on the individual. It is not everyone who has a duration. Military rotation has no time frame that you say, you must rotate people.
“Some of the personnel are specialists in nature whose jobs are very critical to the performance of a particular unit and formation. Their duration may be different from an average rifle man.”
Usman also said the army authorities did not believe the AI report, adding that the methodologies the organisation used must be questioned.
The AI report had indicted the military asked for the International Criminal Court to inaugurate a full-blown investigation into the atrocities committed in the Boko Haram insurgency.
But Usman said, “We have seen the report (International Criminal Court). I think there is an element of the campaign of calumy and mischief. The ICC in its preliminary report did not indict us; what they said was that there were issues of interest in Nigeria. And so for them to have come out to indict Nigeria, it is not true.
“On Amnesty International, there are two things to it. They are accusing us of not trying high-level Boko Haram terrorists, but that is beyond the Nigerian Army.
“The truth is that we have gone through this time again and again. The AI has been in the vanguard of antagonising the army without any credible evidence.
“Four or five years ago when these areas in the North-East were not accessible, how did they come about this information, even when there were no communication infrastructure? They said over 5000 persons were killed and to convey such corpses, you need 12 trailers, where in Maidguri did they get to count the corpses?
“We need to also ask them questions how they came about the reports and the research methodologies they used.”
The army spokesman said the military is involved in “so many internal operations and there are clear guidelines and rules of engagement.”
“If there is any misdemeanour, definitely the disciplinary process will take its due course. We have sitting court martials. Just during the week in 82 Division, 12 soldier were sentenced for various acts of indiscipline.”
