So Sad! The Nigerian Air Force says there are signs that Boko Haram terrorists are returning to Sambisa Forest in Borno State
While we were still trying to believe the news that members of the murderous sect, known as Boko Haram, terrifying the peace of our community, were eventually and completely done away with for good, so that the peace of the nation can be restored, as assured us by the presidency and the Nigerian Air Force, the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, on Thursday, had dashed that hope again. The Minister regrettably told us that the nation’s troops, fighting the Boko Haram sect, could not dominate the environment in the rainy season like they did during dry season.
The Nigerian Air Force claimed the Boko Haram terrorists had started returning to the Sambisa Forest area of Borno State, but claimed that its fighter jets and attack helicopters had bombed the terrorists’ hideouts 108 times between April and July, 2017.
Air Commodore Tajudeen Yusuf disclosed that, some of the difficulties they faced with the air operations were thunderstorms and rainfalls, and as such, there were days that flights had to be delayed or cancelled on account of poor weather. In his words, “Intelligence surveillance and Reconnaissance reports through the second quarter of 2017 indicated a gradual return of the Boko Haram terrorist activities to the Sambisa Forest. There have been sightings of a few Boko Haram activities in the Sambisa general area, particularly in Parisu.
“Hence, the air component conducted significant ISR missions in the Sambisa general area. On July 3, an air interdiction mission was conducted on Alagarno Camp. Several solar panels were seen on buildings in the location, which indicated that it was being used as a Command and Control facility.
“The NAF conducted air interdiction missions with the F-7Ni, Alpha jets, L-39ZA, Mi-17 and the Mi-35M attack helicopters to neutralise the Boko Haram terrorist targets within the theatre.
“A total of 108 air interdiction sorties were conducted from April to June 2017.”
Meanwhile, Dan-Ali assured that efforts are ongoing to stop the ambushes regularly laid by the terror group. According to him, the service chiefs have been directed to move back to the Command Centre in order to be abreast of what is happening there. He declared; “We just finished a meeting with the acting President and the three service chiefs. We agreed that they should move back to the Command Centre and see what are the things happening there.
"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good: His love endures forever."
“We have also agreed that we should get more surveillance devices, cameras that will be able to see distant attackers coming to the position of our troops.
“Also, the rainy season is a difficult moment for us. We cannot dominate the environment like what we did during the dry season but effort is geared towards regaining our areas.
“We assure Nigerians that all these ambushes that are happening regularly would be stopped.”
