Boko Haram’s hit-and-run tactics on military bases are paying off. As the accompanying excerpt from the South African defense industry trade publication DefenceWeb notes, these operations, sometimes entailing 15 or so gun trucks, have enabled the terrorist group to accumulate a significant cache of arms and ammunition. Non-lethal materiel, such as gasoline, uniforms, and communications equipment are also often part of the haul.
Boko Haram has also been able to seize several larger pieces of military hardware. Following a 25 April attack on a Nigerian army base, the terrorist group displayed its captured armament, including armored vehicles and a variety of Toyota Hilux trucks configured for military use. According to the article, Boko Haram has been able to overrun this and other military bases with
relative ease, killing numerous soldiers in the process.
Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, countries in the Lake Chad Basin region, have spent heavily to defeat Boko Haram and its aligned terrorist organization, the Islamic State West Africa Province. Nigeria alone has spent billions of dollars to acquire arms. Unfortunately, as the article points out, a significant portion of these weapons continue to wind up in the hands of the terrorists. Unless this hemorrhaging of weapons to the enemy can be stopped, Boko Haram’s strength will continue to increase ensuring an already long conflict will be prolonged even further.
In the early 2010s, when Boko Haram started its hit and run attacks on military bases and personnel, it was hard to imagine that the daredevil group would one day become emboldened enough to start taking the battle to the Nigerian Army’s gate, as it is being currently witnessed.
Source: Olusegun Akinfenwa, “Boko Haram’s growing arms stockpile: A great concern for Lake Chad Basin region,”
DefenceWeb (a South African defense industry trade publication), 11 May 2021. https://www.defenceweb.co.za/security/nationalsecurity/boko-harams-growing-arms-stockpile-a-great-concern-forlake-chad-basin-region/
In the early 2010s, when Boko Haram started its hit and run attacks on military bases and personnel, it was hard to imagine that the daredevil group would one day become emboldened enough to start taking the battle to the Nigerian Army’s gate, as it is being currently witnessed.
It remains a mystery how the terrorists gain access to military formations and carry out their dastard acts unhindered and ndetected. Also, it is difficult to quantify the true scope and scale of weapons the extremists have seized, given how militaries in the region have been accused of understating the enormity of terrorists’ attacks. In 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari claimed that Boko Haram had been technically defeated and could no longer carry out conventional attacks on security forces or population centers. But the current situation says completely otherwise.
It cost a lot to train a soldier to his or her first operational assignment. Seeing the Nigerian soldiers being killed in their numbers on a regular basis means a huge loss for the country. It has also greatly affected the trust of civilians in their army, considering how it appears that the military is helpless and weak.
While the current situation is worrisome enough, the long term effects could be much more alarming if the forceful acquisition of military weapons by insurgents continues. Already there are devastating humanitarian crises in the region, including tens of thousands of deaths, millions of forced migrations, life-threatening hunger and other issues caused by armed conflicts.
- Original source: OEW Watch | June 2021 – Foreign Military Studies Office
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