The
Nigerian Air Force said on Thursday that the Boko Haram terrorists were
back to the Sambisa Forest area of Borno State, but said its fighter
jets and attack helicopters had bombed the terrorists’ hideouts 108
times between April and July, 2017.
The
Air Component Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, the military
operation in the North-East, Air Commodore Tajudeen Yusuf, disclosed
this while briefing newsmen in Yola, Adamawa State.
Yusuf
said some of the challenges with the air operations were thunderstorms
and rainfalls, which impacted negatively on some air operations during
the period.
He noted that there were days that flights had to be delayed or cancelled on account of poor weather.
He
stated, “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,
the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, on Thursday, regretted 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.
Notwithstanding the challenge, Dan-Ali said efforts were ongoing to stop the ambushes regularly laid by the terror group.
The
minister spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting which
acting President Yemi Osinbajo had with security chiefs at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Dan-Ali
said the service chiefs were directed to move back to the Command
Centre in order to be abreast of what was happening there.
The
minister stated that it was resolved at the meeting that the government
should procure more surveillance devices that would be able to see
potential attackers from a distance.
Dan-Ali
added, “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.
“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.”
Punch Newspaper.
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