U.S., Nigeria Military Differ On Resurgence Of Terror In North East

By Matthew Don
While the African Union Peace and Security Council was busy praising the officers and soldiers of the Nigeria Army for a job well done in the North East in dealing with the issue of terrorism and Boko Haram, the United States Department of State thinks otherwise.
The U.S. State Department said in a report it released on Monday, July 31 that the military has failed to hold the territories they captured earlier, failed to sustain (consolidate on) gains made, and that the there is no plan to properly secure the internally displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Northeast, among other indictments.
The U.S also raised issues concerning the remaining students of the Chibok Girls Secondary School who are still in Boko Haram custody, noting that if the military was working hard enough the girls would by now, have been released.
The U.S. maintains that the current resurgence of terror leading to the killing of both soldiers and civilians was an indication that the leadership of the Nigeria Army has not done enough to deal with the rate of ambushes emanating from the Boko Haram camp.
But the Defence Headquarters would not take any of that from the U.S., insisting that the State department was not saying anything new from earlier snide comments it offered on the military in Nigeria.
Director of Defence Information, Major. General John Enenche who reacted to the report said “it is their (U.S.) opinion and not particularly new from what they said before,” adding that the military in Nigeria had not done poorly given the nature of terrorism it is fighting in the North East.
Enenche maintained that incidents of ambushes could be traced to Boko Haram collaborators in the military which he said could be as a result of poor information dissemination in the system.
In giving the military above average in dealing with terrorism, the A.U. Peace and Security Council said officers and soldiers have degraded the Boko Haram insurgents substantially, and that the threat they used to pose is no longer there in the country.
The council spoke through Bankole Adeoye and Usman Camara when they led the body to meet Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in Aso Rock on Monday, July 31.
In the wake of renewed attacks in the North East recently, Osinbajo summoned the military chiefs to a meeting to ascertain what the issues were.
Last week, no fewer than 18 soldiers and several civilians were killed in an ambush when the soldiers went to rescue some personnel of the Nigeria national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents as NNPC personnel went in search of oil in parts of the North East bordering the Lake Chad.
There have also been recent several attacks on the University of Maiduguri in Borno State, raising further fear of full return of terror attacks in the area.