New Telegraph

Counter-insurgency war: 26,297 terror suspects, family members surrender within 4 months –Investigation

  • Exhaustion cause of surrendering –Retired Commandant

 

The ongoing counterterrorism and counter- insurgency operations in the North East Theatre, have continued to record appreciable gains, writes Emmanuel Onani It will be safe to say that apart from the fratricidal civil war that raged between 1967 and 1970, nothing could be said to have threatened the sovereignty and might of the Nigerian state like the Boko Haram insurgency plaguing the North East and its environs.

 

The blood-letting campaign, which began in 2009 shortly after the killing of the founder of the deadly sect’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf, has continued with the emergence of an equally deadly splinter group, the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP).

No doubt, the emergence of ISWAP made the counterinsurgency war a bit more complex, as the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) now confronts two different terrorist organisations whose common agenda, unarguably, has remained the subjugation of the Nigerian state, and subsequent enthronement of a “caliphate.”

 

According to data released by the United Nations (UN), over 300, 000 people may have died from the insurgency in the North East. In the same vein, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in a report it released in May, put the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the North East at 2,184,254.

 

Part of the Executive Summary of the report, read: “This report, which presents the results from the Round 36 of Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) assessments carried out by the International Organization for Migration, aims to improve the understanding of the scope of internal displacement, the plight of returnees and the needs of the displacementaffected populations in North East Nigeria.

 

“The report covers the period from February 8 to 24, 2021, and reflects the trends from the six states in Nigeria’s North East geopolitical zone. This zone is the most affected by the conflict and consist of the following states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.

 

“In Round 36, a total of 2,184,254 Internally Displaced Persons were identified in 447,628 households. This signifies a 1.6 per cent increase (or 34,011 individuals) comparedtotheRound35 of DTM assessments when 2,150,243 IDPs were recorded (December 2020).

 

“The number of IDPs recorded during Round 35 increased with 0.3 per cent compared to Round 34 when 2,144,135 IDPs were identified (November 2020). When comparing the Round 36 number of IDPs to Round 31 (2,046,604 IDPs – February 2020), the number of IDPs in Northeast Nigeria has increased by 6.6 per cent during the past year.

 

“The number of IDPs in the region is now well above (increased by 7.8 per cent) the number recorded in Round 25 (2,026,602 individuals), which was conducted before the escalating violence was observed in October 2018. The increase in IDPs was noted despite the fact that accessibility remains lower than it was during Round 25 and prior.”

 

 

Notwithstanding, fighting forces have continued to confront the enemies of state, with indications pointing to the neutralisation of thousands of the non-state actors testing the will of the state, as well as degradation of their ranks.

 

A combination of surface and air onslaughts, coupled with non-kinetic approach adopted by the military, has led to the surrendering of 26, 297 terrorist elements (now ex-combatants), including their family members, to fighting forces in the North East theatre of operation.

 

This statistics is a summation of the numbers of surrendered terrorists, including their family members, provided by the Acting Director, Defence Media Op-  erations (DDMO), Brig-Gen. Bernard Onyeuko, during operational briefings held between August and November.

 

A breakdown shows that 1,000 terrorist suspects, including their family members surrendered to troops on August 12, 5,890 on September 2, 2, 783 on September 30, and another 13, 243 turned themselves in on October 13. In the token, 1, 199 bowed to troops on October 28, 1, 186 followed suit on November 11, while 996 others did the needful on November 25.

 

Speaking at a recent biweekly briefing at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) in Abuja, the DDMO had said: “Our troops have continued to execute various kinetic and non-kinetic operations in conjunction with other security agencies across the nation.

 

“Although a few setbacks were experienced in the course of these operations within the last two weeks, however, troops remained undaunted and determined in their quest to attain sustainable peace in the country through kinetic and non-kinetic operations, which yielded attendant results in the past two weeks.”

 

While insisting that, “the efforts of Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies, both kinetic and non-kinetic have continued to yield attendant results” Onyeuko assured: “We will continue to remain steadfast in the fight against all forms of criminalities across the country,” saying: “The Military High Command lauds the sacrifices of its troops and continues to salute their courage and resilience towards achieving sustainable peace in the country.

 

“We also thank the general public for their continuous support and encourage all to avail security forces with credible and timely information that will facilitate our proactive engagements.”

Meanwhile, the pioneer Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Legal Studies, Kaduna, Brig-Gen Godwin Anyalemechi, has attributed the massive surrendering to “exhaustion, occasioned by unrelenting onslaught by troops. His words: “I think the reason for their surrendering, is exhaustion.

 

There is a limit to which you can draw human beings. There is a limit to which you can stress human beings. Human beings cannot be elastic.

 

There is a limit to elasticity where you can draw human beings. “Also, the surrendering can be attributed to military might, pressure. Above all, I think the major cause of their surrendering is exhaustion. I think they have become exhausted.”

Read Previous

Low-tax-to-GDP no licence for tax hike –Adesina

Read Next

ICPC: Labour Ministry, UCH, others character, capacity and com- implicated in illegal recruitment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *