{"id":20059,"date":"2018-08-16T20:32:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T20:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=20059"},"modified":"2018-08-16T20:41:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T20:41:34","slug":"war-weary-nigerian-army-now-fighting-better-armed-boko-haram-afp-security-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=20059","title":{"rendered":"War-weary Nigerian Army now fighting better armed Boko Haram &#8211; AFP Security analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.newsroom247.com.ng --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"caas-body\">\n<p>Disillusioned and exhausted, Nigerian troops battling a surge in Boko Haram jihadist attacks have reached breaking point, protesting less than six months before presidential polls.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian army dismissed it as a &#8220;misunderstanding&#8221;, but on Sunday hundreds of soldiers protested in the airport of Maiduguri, the capital of restive northeast Borno state, for several hours, shooting into the air and disrupting flights.<\/p>\n<p>They were furious about a planned redeployment to a battlefront in the remote Lake Chad region after fighting Boko Haram jihadists for years without relief.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We should not have been here for more than a year but this is our fourth year and still they are asking us to move to Marte,&#8221; one of the protesting soldiers told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need some rest, we are war-weary and need to see our families.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The protest comes after a wave of bloody assaults on military bases in the northeast, forcing the army to retreat and marking a Boko Haram comeback.<\/p>\n<p>The resurgence of violence has put pressure on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking a second term in office and maintains that the country is now in a &#8220;post-conflict stabilisation phase.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Experts say that Nigeria hasn&#8217;t faced such a serious threat from the jihadists since the peak of the insurgency between 2013 and 2015, when Boko Haram controlled swathes of territory in the country&#8217;s northeast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has been a military evolution akin to what we&#8217;ve seen in Syria and Iraq,&#8221; said security analyst Yan St Pierre to AFP.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Boko Haram&#8217;s quality of attack is higher, the level of preparedness is higher.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian military is overwhelmed by the &#8220;catastrophic security situation,&#8221; said St Pierre, &#8220;they are relying on old tactics no longer applicable in the northeast.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Desperate to stop the onslaught, Nigeria&#8217;s military chief Yusuf Tukur Buratai said that &#8220;cowardly&#8221; soldiers would be punished by death in a July 27 memo seen by AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Soldiers who &#8220;abandon their positions&#8221; have the potential to &#8220;rubbish all the laudable gains made in the operations in the past 3 years against BHT (Boko Haram terrorists).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Relentless attacks &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The attacks are relentless. In less than a month, dozens of soldiers have died, though in the absence of any official death toll from the military, the number is feared to be much higher.<\/p>\n<p>Boko Haram has traditionally launched attacks during Nigeria&#8217;s rainy season between June and September when roads become water-logged, making it difficult for troops to do patrols.<\/p>\n<p>The more mobile jihadists seize the opportunity to restock their arsenal of weapons from war-torn Libya and Mali through Nigeria&#8217;s porous borders.<\/p>\n<p>Sanda Kime, who is part of the militia force fighting against Boko Haram in Lake Chad, said the latest attacks were because of &#8220;huge arms supplies&#8221; secured by the jihadists.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are now better armed which makes them more daring,&#8221; said Kime.<\/p>\n<p>The garrison town of Monguno is on high alert after Boko Haram sent out a warning this week that it would attack on August 22 during the Muslim Eid festival, said residents and aid workers.<\/p>\n<p>Similar threats were sent to troops in Askira and Uba towns, security sources said.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the United Nations announced the suspension of humanitarian work by its agencies in Monguno from August 19 over security concerns, according to an internal memo seen by AFP.<\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=16852&amp;ad_type=62&amp;rl=180\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Easy hideouts &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fighters loyal to IS-affiliated Boko Haram factional leader Abu Mus&#8217;ab Al-Barnawi are believed to have carried out most of the raids.<\/p>\n<p>The faction is mostly based in the Lake Chad area and in areas south of Maiduguri including Benisheikh and Buni Yadi in nearby Yobe state.<\/p>\n<p>In June, Nigerian fighter jets bombarded Al-Barnawi&#8217;s Tumbun Gini enclave in the Lake Chad area, forcing him to flee southwards to a forest near Benisheikh, 80 kilometres south of Maiduguri, according to sources with deep knowledge about the group.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He moved his operational base to the Benisheikh area from where he planned the attacks on military bases,&#8221; said a source who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram&#8217;s deceased founder Mohammed Yusuf, has found sanctuary in the Lake Chad region, an area fertile in vegetation and fish that is difficult for security forces to penetrate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The camps are a reservoir of fighters for the group from where they plan and launch attacks&#8221;, said Usman Nalado, a fisherman from the town of Baga on the shore of the lake.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To end their attacks troops need to smoke them out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.newsroom247.com.ng --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disillusioned and exhausted, Nigerian troops battling a surge in Boko Haram jihadist attacks have reached breaking point, protesting less than six months before presidential polls. The Nigerian army dismissed it as a &#8220;misunderstanding&#8221;, but on Sunday hundreds of soldiers protested in the airport of Maiduguri, the capital of restive northeast Borno state, for several hours, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[4989,34,4988,4990],"class_list":["post-20059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-al-barnawi","tag-boko-haram","tag-mohammed-yusuf","tag-yusuf-tukur-buratai"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/BOKO-HARAM.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-5dx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20062,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20059\/revisions\/20062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}