De-mining Sambisa Forest: Buratai calls for UN, EU, and China’s Assistance; says denial of weapons to Nigeria did not stop defeat of BHT.

Following the planting of thousands of deadly mines in and around Sambisa Forest by Boko Haram terrorists, Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has called for assistance from the UN and European countries to help Nigeria remove the mines now that the terrorists have been eliminated from the forest.

Buratai who made the call during an interview session with newsmen in Maiduguri on Sunday emphasized that demining the vast forest will also require the assistance of relevant NGOs and development partners.

He attributed the need for assistance to the fact that such project requires lots of resources which the country alone may not be able to finance.

He said, “The army is currently doing a limited demining of routes in the forest to enable troops to move around for operations.

“Strictly speaking, we have not started demining the Sambisa forest.

“The areas we are concentrating on are where we are working, where our troops will have to move from one point to the other.

“These are the efforts we are making to create safe lanes for troops to pass from one point to the other.

“But, for our deliberate de-mining efforts, it will require much, much resources, much more effort, and we may even request for the civilian de-mining support in that regard.

“De-mining is not restricted to the military only, there are several organizations that have been doing this;

“The UN is one and there are other NGOs that are involved which actually work under the umbrella of the UN.

“So, as comprehensive efforts, these bodies need to be invited to support what the military is doing right now in a limited capacity in that regard”.

Buratai however stated that the army had acquired more equipment for the demining to make the areas where troops operate in the Sambisa safe for them.

Speaking on remnants of the terrorists, Buratai said Yobe and Adamawa were now almost “100 per cent free of the remnants except for Borno state.

He did not rule out the belief that some terrorists were still hiding in bushes in remote areas in some Local Government Areas in Adamawa and Yobe.

The Army Chief said presently, there was need for massive deployment of police and civil defence personnel to major towns, and communities where people had returned to give bring back confidence.

“We need more policemen deployed even in Maiduguri, Damaturu, Bama, Damasak, Gubio, Monguno and Baga and other towns where people have returned, they – police need to really take over.

“Apart from the regular police, the Mobile Police also are key; we need them to be there.

“There are concerns all over that at this stage we really need the civil authority to come and take up their responsibilities fully”, Buratai said.

 “This would relieve the army from civil job to enable troops concentrate and move deep into the bushes for clearance and mop up of remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists.

“Some Immigration and Customs personnel have been deployed. I am aware that they are in some border towns like Gamboru Ngala and Damasak, and some other areas”.

Reacting to constant Amnesty International (AI) accusations of human rights violations by personnel of the army, the COAS reiterated that the army do not infringe on individual rights.

“We know what we are doing, definitely we will not infringe on individual rights.

“We have our own constitutional role; we have our own rules of engagement which are in tandem with our constitution, in tandem with even the international humanitarian law and the laws of armed conflict.

“If, in course of our duty, someone feels that something has gone wrong contrary to what they believe in and they go beyond to call for arms embargo and denial of certain weapons or equipment to the Nigerian military,

“I think the government will address that appropriately.

“This accusation or denial has been on even before the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the embargo has been on.

“And they have been denying the military of some quite important equipment but what happened, we still defeated the Boko Haram terrorists.

“That is what we are all acknowledging and indeed celebrating.

“By and large, I think it (arms denial) has no consequence for now even if they continue to deny us the equipment for us to prosecute the counter insurgency operation in the country. “But that does not mean that we do not need such equipment.

“We need external support. We have a number of countries, who are supporting us and we are doing our best with whatever we have, we utilize them effectively”.

Continuing, Buratai explained the sudden drop in the number of suicide bombings in Maiduguri saying that the army had identified one key location of perpetrators of suicide bombings and had destroyed it.

He said the “key area’’ was cleared by troops in conjunction with other security agencies.

“This has reduced the incidents of suicide bombings in the last couple of days in Borno, particularly Maiduguri.

“By and large, I tell you it – suicide bombing has been reduced drastically. In the last three days, there has been no IEDs attack or suicide attacks and this, we hope will continue.

“They may decide to come but we have been able to take out one key area that we are even suspecting, our troops were able to clear them in conjunction with other security agencies.

“I won’t say at this stage that we have been able to make breakthrough in respect of suicide bombing, but we have made substantial progress and we hope it will be sustained”.

Buratai urged the people of Borno expose the collaborators and indeed, the perpetrators of the dastardly and inhuman act by the Boko Haram terrorists.

He maintained that the terrorists still have their sympathizers and collaborators among the people.

“Definitely, there is no way you will say that these suicide bombers, who are teenagers, young girls, some even under-age can move in from wherever they are strapped into the town except with the guidance of someone within the town or vicinity.

“We still suspect that there are some sympathizers and collaborators or some members that have sneaked into town hiding, and they direct these would-be suicide bombers to targeted areas.

“The issue of suicide bombing is an issue of intelligence which we are working on, in collaboration with other security agencies and indeed with the civil authority to see how this can be addressed quickly”.

Emphasizing the need to halt suicide bombing once and for all, Buratai said that having won the war, there was need to also win the peace, an effort that required the collaboration of both military, other security agencies and the people.

Reharding plans to reorganize the Operation Lafiya Dole, Buratai said the reorganization was ongoing in spite of pockets of attacks and incidents of suicide bombing.

“That position is still being held, the re-organization is ongoing. We will do it. That re-organization does not, however, mean lowering the tempo of the operations.

“It does not mean stepping down the various operations we are doing; be it the counter-insurgency operations, or the humanitarian support as the case may be.

“But we are reorganizing the theatre command to be effective, to be much stronger because we are getting more equipment and procurement is ongoing.

“And we are even raising the tempo of the operation than it was before.”

END