The Borno Police Command said on Saturday that two suspected female suicide bombers died when one them detonated the Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) strapped on her body.
The police said worshippers at Juddumari mosque in Maiduguri noticed the suspects and stopped them from attacking the worshippers in the mosque during the early morning prayer.
The spokesman of the state police command, Mr. Victor Isuku, stated these in a statement in Maiduguri.
He said, “At about 5:20a.m. on Saturday, two suspected female suicide bombers with IEDs strapped to their bodies attempted to enter a mosque at Juddumari village, after Federal High court, Maiduguri.
”They were intercepted and prevented by the worshippers and in the process, one of them detonated her IED, killing both of them and injuring five others.
”The injured were rushed to a specialist hospital, while the remains of the suicide bombers had been evacuated by the officials of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
The Information Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the North East, Malam Abduldulkadir Ibrahim, confirmed that the agency response team helped in evacuating the bodies.
”Following an explosion around a mosque close to Federal High Court Jiddari, the emergency response teams have evacuated the bodies of two female suicide bombers believed to have died in the incident,” Ibrahim stated.
He said the injured victims were administered with first aid and taken to hospitals thereafter.
[dropcap style=”square” color=”#ffffff” bgcolor=”#000000″]T[/dropcap]he evening streaks with heat and casual sand flake; Borno’s plague in the month of March.
As the night wears on, the party of chiefs dissolves to a trickle. General Officers Commanding (GOCs) saunter out of the thermo-induced chill of the Nigerian Army situation room, like rivulets trickling through a cottage roof, into Borno’s rising temperature.
Most of the generals are long gone now. Some wait impatiently outside, but General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff (COAS), adjusts on his seat and clasps his hands.
He thinks of the ‘others’ who will be forever absent from future sessions because they won’t make it to be ‘General.’ Buratai bemoans those who would never partake of the food, laughter and the Nigeria Army’s philosophy of cartridges and buckshot.
He remembers the gallant foot soldier and the officer who died fighting and defending him. He also remembers the Brigadier-General whose life rapidly ebbed, in the hail of terrorist sect, Boko Haram’s deadly bullets.
A deadly encounter
Buratai recollects in sad, measured words, the brutal happenstance that nearly cost Nigeria its number one military General and marksman. “I was with them and my convoy was ambushed by Boko Haram. Instead of withdrawing back to Maiduguri, I said, ‘No! We are in this together, I can’t go back. We must all go together to clear the ambush,” reveals Buratai.
Buratai wines and dines with the troops on the frontlines to boost their morale
[quote font_size=”18″ color=”#000000″ bgcolor=”#ddaa5d” bcolor=”#dd3333″ arrow=”yes”]No! We must advance to clear them!’ I said. ‘’So I advanced with them and that was how we cleared the ambush. If the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) does not turn back, who would turn and run from such an ambush? I advanced with the troops and it paid off.
Unfortunately, we lost two soldiers; one of them was an officer. One other soldier, a Brigadier-General, got wounded in the attack.[/quote]
Varied accounts of the incident flooded the traditional and new media in its wake, but Buratai’s narrative of the encounter elicits the passing tribute of a sigh. The incident, according to the COAS, was one of the major turning points in the country’s war against Boko Haram; that the Chief of Army Staff was advancing to visit the troops at the war front and Boko Haram attacked him in an ambush made good read. But that he refused to retreat to the safety of his guest house in Maiduguri and instead, advanced with the troops to ‘clear the ambush’ resonates even as you read, as the best of military legend.
The legend is true. Buratai did lead an assault against Boko Haram, under hostility and intense gunfire. Boko Haram militants struck at his convoy about 45 kilometres or 28 miles east of Borno’s capital, Maiduguri. General Buratai had been visiting troops to encourage them and boost their morale in their fight against the terrorists.
But between the villages of Mafa and Dikwa, remnants of Boko Haram laid an ambush on the entourage of the chief of army staff. The army killed 10 of the terrorists and captured five. Two soldiers got killed and five were wounded in the ambush.
Being an army chief is no walk in the park. Even for Buratai, the task may seem challenging. Still, it is the ultimate job. It is the spiky tip of the spear overseeing the men and women bearing the rifles and laying down their lives that others might live.
From his perch at the Nigeria Army Headquarters, it could be hard to make out the regular people: the infantry soldiers and officers serving as buffer and hauling themselves as human shields against the hail of enemy bullets, that Nigeria might live.
It could be dicey taking the lead and even more challenging to earn the troops’ respect and sustain it. The detached army chief would emphasise the gaps between foot soldiers and the highest command. From his high office, he would see underlings as disposable human integers and the gallant men and women slugging it out with Boko Haram on the nation’s fringes, could seem like mites in a gutter, in his estimation of things. But Buratai detests such traditional military authority stereotype.
“None should apply to the Nigeria Army. Not under my command,” he states in kind and by language of his gangly frame.
Buratai would not be the over-indulgent general with tired girth sitting in his oversized Abuja office, to command the troops. He knows other ways to exert a commanding presence. He flaunts no devious wile or exaggerated gift of the garb. The Nigerian COAS lacks the contrived finesse and intensity of character so common among men with oversized public offices. His arguments non-partisan; they are disciplined and well grounded in reality. Buratai doesn’t bluff in search of depth. He’s careful and pragmatic, which makes sense because he spent most of his career as an infantry soldier and officer.
He’s almost reticent yet confident which could be confusing. But therein subsists the peculiar riddle of his persona. Buratai doesn’t unravel to middling eye and mind. He doesn’t do the high society party circuit because he is not a social butterfly. He prefers to eat at home with his wife when he’s not breaking bread and maasa (rice cake) in the trenches with the troops. Then he gets back to work – because Tukur Buratai is Type-A-workaholic.
When conversation segues to the ongoing war against Boko Haram tagged Operation Lafiya Dole, Buratai glows from inside out. “My greatest fulfilment is with the progress that has been made in the war against Boko Haram since I resumed as the Chief of Army Staff,” he says.
‘The situation before we came in’
“We came at a time when truly the challenge of the insurgency was very high. It was at its peak. There is no gainsaying that some progress had been made before we came in. But the progress that was made before we came in was being overtaken by the virtual resurgence of Boko Haram terrorist group.
“At the time we came, there were only four local governments that were not under the Boko Haram terrorist group’s control out of about 27 local governments in Borno. Same in Yobe state; two local governments were still under Boko Haram’s influence. That was the situation we met when we came in July 2015.
“As at today, those two local governments in Yobe state have been reclaimed from Boko Haram. And in Borno, all the 23 LGAs that were under the influence and control of Boko Haram have been liberated and they’ve been effectively put under the control of the elected government. The areas that are remaining are just the peripheral, that lies along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. And Chad and Niger borders as well. No single local government is under the control of Boko Haram. To me, this is a major achievement and source of fulfilment,” enthuses Buratai.
Buratai thinks too little of Boko Haram. According to him, the terrorist sect has been substantially degraded. He said: “We just completed the small arms championship in Sambisa forest; they said they were coming to disrupt the exercise but we’ve not seen them come close to that area. This shows that the Nigerian military is fully in control of the area and the situation.”
The improvement in the troops’ morale also gives him cause for fulfilment. “At the time we took over, there was apprehension. There was disquiet. There was uncertainty and the basic requirements in terms of uniform and protective gears that should be readily available to the soldiers, particularly those engaging in combat, were particularly lacking. We had our troops putting on the American camouflage among others. The situation has since changed.
“Since we took over, our troops have had access to the necessary uniforms, kit and protective gear. Although we have not achieved 100 percent, we have achieved about 85 percent success in correcting the situation. We are still working hard to ensure that we achieve 100 percent in providing our troops’ basic needs,” argued Buratai.
The COAS stressed that, “Through the improvement of our troops’ basic training needs, promotion and welfare, we have been able to achieve greater improvement in our troops’ morale. You can see, our troops are standing firm and penetrating into the Sambisa forest and other difficult areas that we’ve not been able to penetrate before.”
Buratai believes that “leadership is all about the people you lead.” Thus “I take the soldiers, the troops in general, as the most important aspect of soldiering. Their welfare and the general administration of the troops is key,” he says.
The army chief argued that, “When you are a leader, you cannot just sit in your office without making contact with the people you lead. I make contact and I think that is what broke the jinx. I don’t just sit down in my office. I started by visiting the troops. I went into the forest to see them. I visited them down in their trenches to talk to them and listen to their worries. The contact I made and still make really makes the difference.
“Through that contact, I was able to see them, hear them and understand them. I got to know their individual challenges, unit challenges and indeed, the general operational challenges. And then I addressed them. Those that could not be addressed immediately, I took them back to the office and assigned their resolution to the relevant departments. I did not stop there. I spent the nights with them right in their trenches, right inside the bush, in whatever location I visited them,” he states.
Buratai didn’t just happen to be the most powerful soldier in Nigeria. His path to the top never laid out in flat miles. He got there by dint of hard work. Perhaps it’s the meticulousness by which he approaches his work and the gestures by which he honours it that stood him out.
Indeed, very few Generals excite the splendid tribute of a cheer in the wake of their most glorious feats. Nonetheless, Buratai strikingly commands relentless tributes of ceaseless cheers by his exploits. These days, the homage reverberates as deafening applause for the man who taught Nigeria and her African neighbours to trust in the soul and practical depth of his command of the armed forces.
The man, Buratai
If Buratai doesn’t fulfill the ubiquitous stereotype of the political army chief, it’s because he never purported to be a politician and his story was never scripted to satisfy such typecast. The outlines of the story are, however, familiar: Born to Alhaji Yusuf Buratai, an ex-serviceman who joined the West African Army in 1942 and fought the Second World War, Buratai hails from a lineage of warriors.
An accomplished infantry senior officer, Buratai was commissioned in 1983 and he has had multiple command, administrative and instructional appointments over his 35 years illustrious career in the Nigerian Army.
He gained admission into the prestigious Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, as member of the 29 Regular Combatant Course on January 3, 1981 and got commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on December 17, 1983, into the Infantry Corps of the Nigerian Army. Afterwards, he served in the 26 Amphibious Battalion Elele, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and as a Military Observer at the United Nations Verification Mission II in Angola. Buratai also served as administrative officer at the State House, Abuja; 82 Motorized Battalion; 81 Battalion, Bakassi Peninsular; Army Headquarters Garrison, Abuja, before he became a Directing Staff at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji; there he earned the prestigious “Pass Staff College Dagger” (psc(+) appellation.
Buratai subsequently, served at Army Headquarters (AHQ) Dept of Army Policy and Plans, Abuja. He was also the Assistant Chief of Staff Administrative Matters, HQ Infantry Centre Jaji. Additionally, he was again at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College as Director Dept of Land Warfare from where he was appointed Commander 2 Brigade, Port Harcourt, doubling as Commander, Sector 2 JTF Operation Pulo Shield.
Upon promotion to the rank of Major General, he was appointed Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji; thereafter he was appointed Director of Procurement DHQ before being appointed Force Commander of the newly reconstituted Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin Republic an appointment he held till he became Chief of Army Staff, his operational deployments included Operation Harmony IV in the Bakassi Peninsular, Operation Mesa, Operation Pulo Shield, Operation Safe Conduct, MNJTF, Op Zaman Lafiya and Operation Lafiya Dole.
His qualifications include the Nigerian Defence Academy Certification of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in History. He also has a Master of Arts Degree in History and Master of Philosophy Degree in Security Studies.
A highly decorated senior officer, Lt. Gen. Buratai’s honours and awards include the Nigerian Army Medal, Forces Service Star, Meritorious Service Star, Distinguished Service Star and the Grand Service Star. Others include, Pass Staff Course Dagger (psc(+)), National Defence College (Bangladesh), Field Command Medal, Training Support Medal and the United Nations Medal for Angolan Verification Medal II.
He is a member of Historical Society of Nigeria. Lt Gen Buratai loves farming, squash racket and jogging.
For the military to gain upper hand and sustain its successes in the fight against terrorism, he said: “We require the support and cooperation of the government, civil societies and every other sector of the country.”
According to him, “Although the military has the constitutional responsibility to defend the country from external aggression and protect its territorial integrity, it can only do this if the resources of the country, government effort and citizenry support are tailored to help it in its work. By and large, war is everybody’s responsibility and the achievement of peace too.
[quote font_size=”18″ color=”#000000″ bgcolor=”#ddaa5d” bcolor=”#dd3333″ arrow=”yes”]The Nigerian military is guided by rules and regulations and code of conduct. And the military conforms to these rules. No one can come from outside to direct us or teach us how to carry out our operations. This is where the problem is.
There is no way we can go beyond our rules of engagement which are provided for by the instrumentality of the constitution. The NGO’s criticism is a misplaced one. Such an NGO by its actions emboldens the terrorist group and indirectly speak in the terrorists’ interests – Buratai.[/quote]
Despite his public office, it is a private space that Tukur Buratai occupies. It’s no dreamscape of gilded tapestry, political harlotry and fresco-style murals of exaggerated nobility. Buratai does not pander to the pomp and pageantry of random socialites neither does he seek to conform to any political clique’s social barometer. He will not fulfill the showman with big flash and little substance stereotype.
His passion gives him strength and his unabashed humility enables him to connect to folk too many of his peers may dismiss as ‘common people.’ There are no common people in Buratai’s life. Every soldier is a hero and heroine, deserving honour and acclaim in the estimation of the Nigerian state.
Being a soldier is no easy task. Ask Buratai: in a few months, he did what his predecessors couldn’t do in four years. He attempted the impossible and achieved results with defiant flair. But the hulking COAS would tell you that the victory is never his alone but a monumental achievement made possible by the gallantry of his troops and the Nigerian Armed Forces. He would tell you: “Had President Muhammadu Buhari not empowered the Nigerian military with necessary funding and other support, our victories would be impossible.”
Troops speak of his unpretentious warmth and interest in their affairs. “Oga (Buratai) will tell you: Gentlemen, you know this land, you are better trained. You’ve seen it all, done it all. Let’s go get these braggers. Let’s clear them off, that we may go home to spend time with our wives and kids.” Thus is the person of Tukur Buratai.
Different soldiers project different reflections and definitions of Buratai. Sometimes, almost every adjective becomes a cliché in describing the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff. His leadership culture, anti-terrorism campaign, strings of victories and confrontation with Boko Haram offer a very colourful picture.
Cocksure, driven and unapologetically blunt, Buratai sought to achieve the impossible: the liberation of Borno from Boko Haram’s stranglehold. That had to be difficult. It was. Buratai had to descend into the trenches with his men. He broke bread with them and transformed the Borno theatre of war into an unusual victors’ space founded on purely patriotic needs.
Quietly but remarkably, the army chief divorced the military from previous afflictions of public apathy and scorn. He inspired a military culture characteristic of the quintessential patriot soldier, all in bid to recreate a Nigerian military with a different story; a gripping yarn founded on patriotism and culture indigenous to the people they are meant to protect. It’s the stuff gallant soldiers are made of.
Gen. Lucky ‘Leo’ Irabor, Nigeria Army Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, northeast zone, speaks to our reporter on how Boko Haram detainees are treated
WE’VE had some organisations with interest in human rights issues make allegations against the military. Those allegations are so untrue; untrue because they are mere allusions. They did not in any way come to us for verification. They didn’t confront us with the issues before they went to the press. When you talk about human rights abuses in a detention facility, the question to ask is: what are those human rights abuses? The detainees themselves know and speak to the fact that the treatment we give to them in the detention facilities is the kind of treatment they never envisaged. They never thought that they would be well fed or that there will be a kind of medical treatment for them.
There is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), we give them unfettered access to the detention facility. Well of course, you could say there is congestion. Again, congestion in my view is also relative. Once you are in a solitary confinement; of course, there will be issues. In our state-run prisons, there are issues. It cannot be the same as living in your own house.
We are a professional force. We set out for our operations guided by rules. We do not set out to make life unbearable for anyone. Not even in the frontlines let alone in the detention facilities. In fact, if we had it in mind to make life unbearable for them, why didn’t we eliminate them at the point of capture? That we didn’t do that, speaks to the fact that we are bound by laws that govern operations generally: the international humanitarian law and the international human rights law. And of course our code of conduct and rules of engagement compels us to do what is right.
We have those who come to monitor all that we do, within the military. The idea is to ensure that we do what is right.
Allegations of child abuse
Some have also accused us of keeping children but the only set of children we have are the children of some of the detainees that refuse to let us transfer the children to appropriate facilities for children, like the facility set up by the Borno State government for such children. The others are those children that have also taken part in war. Some of them…a boy of 10, 12, 13, if you know what they have done in terms of killing and what they’ve gone through by way of training and operation of weapons, you will be shocked.
But of course, it will be improper of us to see such a boy of such age and say he is a child and let him go. No. We have to keep him to change his orientation. And our de-radicalisation process of course have yielded results.
In sum, I will say that the allegations that a good number of people and some international organisations, especially the Amnesty International (AI), have levelled against us are untrue and very unfair with respect to the operations and the detention of some of the detainees. What is on ground is very different from the picture they paint.
We also have the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that has engaged us in respect of similar issues and they have not in any way faulted what’ve done. The ICRC, like I said, has engaged us at various times and they have commended us in respect of those issues concerning how we treat those in our detention facilities.
There is no system that is perfect. We are always open for engagement, particularly with those with interests that are positive in orientation, not with those who believe that nothing good can come out of the Nigerian military.
De-radicalising Boko Haram
It’s been quite challenging no doubt but of course, it’s been very successful thus far; because we have brought our ingenuity into the operations. We have been able to evolve and answer the necessary questions: What is it that has motivated them to stay so long in this fight? And what is it that if we take out, it could make them surrender?
The aggregate of all these is that we have evolved a progressive approach to dealing with arrested members of Boko Haram. When they come to our detention facilities…not only do we address their medical needs, at the point we receive them, some of them appear so emaciated. They appear to have been starved of food. They appear very sick. Not only do we address those immediate needs, we also go as far as ensuring that their immediate hygiene requirements are met. Then we provide them clothing and change the rags in which they arrive.
Then we have evolved a humane process of interrogating them. It laid the foundation for properly interrogating them. And a large percentage of them have begun to open up and have a different impression as to the falsehood they were fed with whilst in the bush. They confessed to us that what they were made to believe in the bush is that as soon as they come out, we would kill them but surprisingly to them, we are keeping them alive. We also treat them humanely and even provide them medicines and food.
We allow the ICRC to visit our detention facilities from time to time because of their pedigree. And then they also talk to the inmates. Then they talk to us and highlight areas they would like us to address. In following visits, they try to ascertain if we have addressed issues they raised in their previous visits; and to a fair extent, they see that we do and they have commended us for the progressive improvements in the treatment of the inmates and the facility itself.
Due to our humane interrogation approach and de-radicalisation programme, the inmates have been coming forward with very useful information which has helped a great deal in our operations.
Those in the bush are finally getting to know that they stand to benefit a great deal if they surrender peacefully or come to us. They know that we have in our custody, a great number of them that surrendered and those that we also arrested.
A great deal of reformation has taken place in the lives of some of them to the extent that, they have volunteered to speak to their colleagues that are still in the bush with Boko Haram. They are eager to counsel their colleagues to lay down arms and surrender using themselves as examples. They want them to see that reality is different from what they have been made to believe by their captors and colleagues in the bush.
The onset of change
As the de-radicalisation process progresses, sometimes, you are forced to wonder, are these the same fellows that were responsible for the kind of carnage attributed to them? Many of them have become so remorseful. If not for their confessions about the kind of killings they’ve perpetrated, sometimes, it may become very difficult for you to believe that they were responsible for such crimes. But of course, there are a few others that are still in the process of coming to terms with their situation. And a few others, because of the trauma they experienced while with the Boko Haram terrorist group, sometimes, they experience some emotional breakdown. Sometimes, we have had to take them to appropriate medical facility to ensure that their state of mind is normalised and they get necessary help.
Those in our custody undergoing reform are eager to save their colleagues. Many of them crave that their colleagues lay down arms and come to the kind of understanding they have attained in our custody, which is, the government means well, the military means well and that they are being well taken care of in their detention facilities.
We give them to opportunity to say their Salat prayers and conduct their normal worship at appropriate times right in the detention facilities. The scope of the de-radicalisation programme has since been widened to include renowned Islamic scholars to disabuse their minds of wrong ideologies and introduce them to the right doctrine. These clerics and scholars are working to put them through the right doctrinal framework in terms of the true teachings of the Islam and the Holy Quran.
As it stands today, I can say that, those in our detention facilities, a greater percentage of them has actually come to terms with their situation and they have found that they had been deceived. They feel so remorseful and they wish that they were never part of the Boko Haram terrorism madness. This is heartwarming and that is why we are living no stone unturned to encourage others, those that are still running from one part of the bush to the other, to lay down their arms and embrace peace.
We also hope that those that have been de-radicalised and reformed will prove useful in helping others to embrace peace and reintegrate into society when the process is completed.
BOKO Haram terrorists torched a military base at Wajirko,150 kilometres from Maiduguri,the Borno State capital ,on Thursday, 24 hours after the group killed seven people in a separate raid.
The gunmen, according to residents, arrived in pickups and engaged soldiers in the base just outside the village in a heavy shootout. The soldiers who were apparently outgunned retreated.
The insurgents then took over the base which they looted and set on fire. It was gathered that the soldiers moved to a military base 40 kilometres away. Twenty four hours earlier, Boko Haram fighters riding on motorcycles stormed Abbati, a farming community outside Maiduguri, killing seven men. They also stole 360 livestock.
Two of the seven people killed were captured and forced to lead the invaders to the community. They were thereafter shot . The remaining five victims were the owners of the cattle herds. They were killed after confronting the terrorists with bows and arrows.
Boko Haram terrorists torched a military base at Wajirko, 150 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Thursday, 24 hours after the group killed seven people in a separate raid.
The gunmen, according to residents, arrived in pickups and engaged soldiers in the base just outside the village in a heavy shootout.
The soldiers who were apparently outgunned retreated.
The insurgents then took over the base which they looted and set on fire.
It was gathered that the soldiers moved to a military base 40 kilometres away.
24 hours earlier, Boko Haram fighters riding on motorcycles stormed Abbati, a farming community outside Maiduguri, killing seven men.
They also stole 360 livestock.
Two of the seven people killed were captured and forced to lead the invaders to the community.
They were thereafter shot dead.
The remaining five victims were the owners of the cattle herds.
The victims were killed after they confronted the terrorists with bows and arrows.
The House of Representatives said it would strive to evolve favourable business ties with the Spanish Government to support Federal Government’s diversification objective.
Chairman of the house’s Ad hoc Committee on Nigeria-Spain Relations, Rep. Diri Douye (Bayelsa-PDP) stated this on Thursday in Abuja when the committee visited the Spanish Embassy.
He listed areas of key interest in the bilateral ties to include oil and gas, agriculture, culture and tourism, and solid minerals.
Douye said that he was optimistic that strengthening the existing cordial diplomatic relations between both countries would enhance wellbeing of citizens through the instrument of parliament.
In his response, the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Alfonso De Erico, expressed his government’s readiness in promoting stronger relations with Nigeria.
According to him, Nigeria is a very generous society and we are very proud to be part of this generosity that we would want the rest of the world to explore its tourism potential.
“We congratulate Nigeria for winning the fight against Boko Haram; we are aware of the economic challenges in the country presently and we know that Nigeria can improve and move forward.
“We also congratulate Nigeria on the peaceful transmission of power. We promise to promote stronger relations between Nigeria and Spain,” the envoy said.
A team of UN experts has arrived in Nigeria to assess the number of landmines Boko Haram terrorists have laid in the Sambisa Forest.
Ms Agnes Marcaillou, Director, UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), told a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that the team arrived the country on Tuesday.
According to her, the assessment is with a view to de-mining and clearing the area of landmines.
UNMAS collaborates with 11 other UN departments, agencies, programmes and funds to ensure effective, proactive and coordinated response to the problems of landmines and explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, had on Sunday called for deliberate efforts to remove mines from the Sambisa forest after the sack of the insurgents from the area.
Buratai said the effort required the assistance of the UN, Non-Governmental Organisations and development partners as the country could not do it alone.
Speaking on the UN response, Marcaillou said: “UNMAS has sent some people to Nigeria and they have arrived already today (Tuesday) to explore this matter further.
“I would say that the standard is that we need first and foremost, the involvement of the country in looking at the threat, it’s a partnership.
“The United Nations and UNMAS have no magic wand. We need to get an assessment of the problem together; UN brings the capacities of the UN and the government together.
“And then the Government of Nigeria will take the lead in mobilising the international community support.
“This is because everything that we will do together at one point or another in Nigeria will require funding to meet those needs.
“We need the concrete engagement of the government. We need to have evidence that the Government of Nigeria has put this question as a top priority on its agenda.’’
She, however, pledged the commitment of the UN mine service to working with the Federal Government to rid the conflict-prone areas of landmines.
“But right now, the positive side of the story is that we have responded to the call.
“And we have a number of people who have already arrived the country today (Tuesday) to discuss it further,” she said.
The faction of the Boko Haram sect led by Abubakar Shekau released a video on Tuesday denying that fighters are dying of hunger in its northeast Nigerian forest base.
Nigeria’s military last week said it was “ransacking” territory it had recaptured from Boko Haram in the hunt for Shekau, who leads one of two main branches of the jihadist group. It also said he might be hiding in the Sambisa forest.
Large parts of northeast Nigeria, particularly in Borno State, remain under threat from Boko Haram as suicide bombings and gun attacks have increased in the region since the end of the rainy season late last year.
“There is no food that we lack in this forest of Sambisa. It is not true that we have run out of food supply and that we are being killed by hunger,” Reuters quoted an unidentified man with a rifle, flanked by others carrying guns, as saying in the five-minute video.
Nigeria’s army said in December that it had pushed Boko Haram out of the Sambisa forest, a vast former colonial game reserve that was the group’s stronghold, in an operation to reclaim territory lost to insurgency since 2009.
Boko Haram split last year, with one faction led by Shekau operating from the forest and the other, allied to Islamic State and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, based in the Lake Chad region.
“We urge all members to be one hundred percent loyal to him [Shekau],” said the man in the video. “It is not true that you killed Shekau,” he said, referring to previous claims by the Nigerian military that he had been fatally wounded.
Shekau did not appear in the video, which was circulated on social media on Tuesday.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) said on Tuesday that it was working towards re-opening of its Orientation Camp in Maiduguri following return of relative peace to the State.
Brig:-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, Director- General of NYSC, gave the hint while speaking with newsmen in Maiduguri.
Kazaure said NYSC was eager to re-open the camp following the return of peace to the state ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“There is relative peace now in the state, so we will like to come back as soon as possible. Remember, the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are still occupying the Orientation Camp”, he said.
Kazaure said the camp would be re-opened once the IDPs were evacuated from it.
“It is only in Borno that our corps members have yet to have their orientation camp in place.
“We are ready to start our orientation the moment the State Government releases our camp to us”, he said.
Kazaure commended the corps members serving in the state for their dedication and resilience.
“If you notice, I asked them about their morale and they responded by saying morale high. That is how we measure the psychological frame of the corps members.
“Minus the camp, every other thing is in place for them. This means that they are in good spirit, they are doing well”, he said.
Kazaure thanked the state government for providing enhanced welfare and security for the corps members.
“I am happy that the state government has been assisting in ensuring the welfare of the corps members.
“I thank Gov. Kashim Shettima for that and implore other states to emulate the gesture by ensuring adequate welfare for corps members serving in their localities”, he said.
Kazaure said the NYSC was working toward setting up six skills acquisition centers across the country to empower corps members with necessary skills.
“We identified lack of tradeing skills as the major problem causing unemployment among NYSC members.
“So we embarked on establishment of six skills acquisition centers in all the geopolitical zones of the country to help in training these young graduates to become self-reliant.
“W have almost completed work on the center in Gombe which will serve states in the North East.
He said the NYSC authority was also working on five other centres and were near completion.
The director-general said the essence of the innovation was to produce corps members that would eventually become job creators rather than being job seekers.
The UK Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, on Monday explained why the Security Council adopted a resolution on the Boko Haram crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, saying it was a landmark development.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Security Council had on Friday adopted Resolution 2349 (2017) to bring attention to the Boko Haram crisis.
Rycroft said: “This adoption marks the start of the next chapter of our work on the Lake Chad Basin. Seeing a crisis first hand is a good start but it isn’t enough on its own.
“It isn’t enough just to bring attention to its situation. We will fail the people of the region if we do not respond to what we saw; if we don’t take tangible action to bring real relief, real respite to the suffering, the hunger, the instability.
“Through this resolution, we have made clear what action needs to be taken.
“First and foremost, we need the countries in the region, the international community and the UN urgently to scale up their response to the humanitarian crisis.
“If we act now famine can be avoided. But that means quickly dispersing money pledged at Oslo – every single dollar of the 458 million dollars pledged by donors, every single dollar of the one billion dollars pledged from the Government of Nigeria.
“It means supporting the regional governments to lead a comprehensive and effective response to the crisis, building on the leadership they have already shown.
“It means all in the region, including ECOWAS and ECCAS, addressing the root causes of the crisis – addressing economic inequalities, countering violent extremism, empowering women.”
“Boko Haram exploits the poverty in the northeast, it exploits the men who view women as no more than objects, wives and cooks without the prospect of a future,’’ he added.
The UK envoy emphasised that the ideology of Boko Haram was unacceptable.
“We also must avoid a protracted crisis by better bridging the divide between humanitarian and development programming,
“If we are to bring a conclusion to this crisis, we must also commend and support the countries in the region on their efforts to combat Boko Haram, including through the Multi National Joint Task Force.
“They must sustain their momentum to defeat Boko Haram and Daesh.
“You can’t defeat terror or build peace if you are committing or condoning the abuse of civilians. We all must hold ourselves to a higher standard than that,” Rycroft said.
