Report: S’Africans providing technical assistance in Boko Haram fight

Report: S’Africans providing
technical assistance in Boko
Haram fight
 Mar 13, 2015  Our Correspondent  News  0
Nigeria’s senior military commanders have
described stories in major international media and
culled by local media reporting that Nigeria is
deploying hundreds of mercenaries against Boko
Haram terrorists as a joke taken too far.
The officers insisted the foreigners, who were
identified largely as South Africans, are technical
advisers that are providing trainings and
instructions on the use of new armaments recently
procured by the Nigerian military in the war on
terror.
Some top commanders, who spoke with PRNigeria
without wanting their identities disclosed, insisted
that the news is part of the propaganda to paint the
Nigerian military as incompetent to deal with the
insurgency by desperately ascribing recent spate of
successes to ‘others’ rather than the gallant troops’
efforts.
The source recalled that only recently, some news
agencies ascribed such successes to Cameroonian,
Nigerien and “battle hardened” Chadian forces but
when it became obvious that the forces of those
countries were mainly fighting along their own
border areas, blocking free movement of terrorists,
“it became necessary to look for others” who are
helping Nigerians to fight.
PRNigeria learnt that the foreigners spotted in
Maiduguri, Borno State and other areas close to the
theatre of wars are technical partners who are
helping to train Nigerian forces on how to operate
and maintain the recently acquired equipments,
which came from different sources.
The source further cited the particular example of
the maintenance technician, who died recently,
insisting that he was not even a combatant but a
professional in fixing armour vehicles.
President Goodluck Jonathan was recently quoted
in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA)
confirming that Nigeria has some trainers helping to
get troops well acquainted with the recently
acquired weaponry.
According to Jonathan: “We now have this technical
people who are trainers and technicians, who are to
train our people on how to use them, and
technicians that help the maintenance, at the same
time training our people how to maintain this
equipment.”
He added that two companies were involved in the
training.
The source recalled with regret the several years
that Nigeria wasted while negotiating and appealing
for equipment supply from the Western allies, which
were not only rebuffed but prevented other
countries under their direct influence from selling to
Nigeria.
“The fact that we have foreign experts outside the
United States helping to train our troops is not a
secret but it is not fair for them to embark on this
blackmail simply because we got assistance from
other places when they turned us down at a critical
period,” the source stated.
When contacted on the story that mercenaries are
fighting the battle for Nigeria, the Director Defence
Information, Major General Chris Olukolade said:
“Sorry, I don’t have anything about that claim. I just
know that Nigerian military and security forces are
putting in all their resources, training and
experience acquired over the years to address the
security challenges.
“Our neighbours operating under the auspices of
the Multinational Joint Task Force are also backing
our efforts from all our borders with them. We also
have some offer of training and intelligence
assistance from foreign countries. Some of these
arrangements even predate the present operations.”