Finally Nigerian Navy Re-equips Headquarters In Borno After Boko Haram Invasion
The Nigerian Navy says it is re-equipping its operational headquarters in Baga town of Borno State, looted by Boko Haram.
The Baga Naval Base was dislodged in December 2018 after a fierce battle with the Boko Haram insurgents.
This is according to the Chief of Training and Operations of the Naval Headquarters, Rear Admiral Ibikunle Taiwo Olaiya.
Olaiya represented the Chief of Naval Staff at a new year get together with troops in a make-shift base in Maiduguri.
The naval chief praised the efforts of personnel during the attack which according to him “allowed personnel of sister services and paramilitary then based in Baga to withdraw safely including many civilians.”
He also revealed that two years after the dislodgement, some personnel are still missing in action, but assures that the faultlines that led to the overrunning of the base have been studied and corrected to avoid a reoccurrence.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche has said that terrorism and insurgency are resilient all over the world.
He stated this on Thursday during a special end-of-the-year programme which aired on Channels Television.
“It is rather unfortunate that all over the world, insurgency, and terrorism are very resilient. It is a similar thing that we are having,” he said.
“For us, the encouragement is that from having controlled territories, now they don’t have controlled territories on the ground where they have authorities and set up an administration.”
While admitting that the insurgency war in Nigeria has been ongoing for over a decade, the defence spokesman said the military has been able to contain the terrorists to what he described as skirmishes.
On training, Enenche explained that the military is collaborating with some foreign partners to ensure that the insurgency war is won as soon as possible.
“From where bombing, terrorism was all over the place, they have all been contained to skirmishes, isolations here and there.
“We are up in training, collaborating with other foreign concerns that have been in situations like ours. We are making efforts to ensure that it is eliminated as soon as possible,” he added.
Boko Haram and a splinter group known as the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) have launched a series of attacks in Nigeria for more than a decade now.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram violence in Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, violence by Boko Haram has affected 26 million people in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.6 million others.
