A Soldier's Story About Boko Haram And Nigerian Army

The “daily routine”

We are not the only soldiers in North East.

We came to Adamawa state, fought hard and recaptured all lost territories from Boko Haram. After two months of recess we were given a task to capture Bita, a community located in Borno state – a stronghold of the Boko Haram terrorists – and hand it over to the troo

ps of the seventh division of the Nigerian army. The task was successfully completed. Ever since then we have been anticipating to hand over to the seventh division only to hear that we have been deployed operationally under the seventh division and administratively under the third division.

This is our eighth months in Bita, a very strong Boko Haram enclave, and today is worse of it all. Today, January 10, 2016, we have come under a heavy terrorist attack, and lost four soldiers; 17 are badly injured. With no air support and little resources we have endured the attack lasting for four hours, and completed it successfully having destroyed much of the enemy’s equipment.

Soldiers need help

Please, the army authorities should render us support because we are fed up, and some of our soldiers are beginning to go insane. The day we pull out of Bita the Nigerian army will start all over again. The duty of the Nigerian Air Force is to provide air support for ground troops in combat, and also aid in medical evacuation of casualties. But that has never been the case in operation Lafiya Dole.

When soldiers are injured what you hear is that the zone is not safe to land, but whenever the so-called generals feel like or are compelled to come to front lines, they come with choppers and heavy gunship escorts. Does it mean that the 114 task force battalion with the troops deployed in Bita is no longer hamans? We have the soldiers wounded as a result of the January 10 attack, however, what they say is it is not secure for the choppers to land and evacuate them for prompt medical care.

Is security a myth?

Are we not secure enough? How many minutes will it take to a helicopter to land and take off? Now the wounded have to go through the bad roads and gallops linking to Bita, which are not safe from mines and enemy ambush. On several occassions we have requested mine sweepers from the theatre commander, the general officer commanding and the seventh division; all to no avail. The equipment is worn out. We have only survived by God’s ultimate love and grace. After 14 months of fighting and eight months on the hostile ground our numbers have reduced drastically owning to the killed and wounded in action. If we are not rotated by the time the soldiers revolt, we will ensure Boko Haram recaptures all the lost territories both in Adamawa and Maiduguri. Then they will know that Boko Haram is still very strong in Nigeria, and they will stop decieving Mr President.
​This is our ordeal. Ensure I remain secret, as I have got the opportunity to send this because I am the one of those escorting the casualties to the medical centre in Yola. There is no mobile network in Bita.