105 mm howitzers

PHOTO CREDIT: NIGERIAN DEFENCE ACADEMY

JTF personnel in Chinese-built, DShK 12.7mm twin machine gun-armed patrol boats: Sergeant(red stripes)is a MOPOL cop while the rest are militarymen

BEEGEAGLE’S BLOG
5 March, 2013

The Joint Task Force – Operation Pulo Shield has issued a rebuttal to allegations of complicity in illegal activity levelled against the force by the Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr Mutiu Sunmonu.

In a press release signed by the JTF Media Coordinator, Lt Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu and made available to Beegeagle’s Blog, the JTF said it deemed it contradictory that the same SPDC boss who had lately lauded the very credible performance of the JTF in 2012 was now making ‘uninformed allegations’ which are pursuant to the advancement of an unclear agenda. According to the JTF spokesman, at the time of writing, a major crackdown on illegal bunkering activities leading to the arrest of vessels, destruction of illegal refining units and arrests of culprits is in progress. He further stated that the JTF being an amalgam of various defence and security agencies, it is unlikely that a concensus which would be essential for systematic acts of illegality to be perpetrated, could be ever reached.

The full text of the JTF statements reads:
“Attention has been drawn to comments by Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) insinuating that the complicity of the Joint Task Force OPERATION PULO SHIELD is necessitating the shutting down of its Nembe trunk line.

“It is necessary to unequivocally point out that these comments are from a very much uninformed position and the insinuations of complicity by JTF is very distant from the truth.

“The JTF has a mandate of curbing illegal oil bunkering, crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and other acts of criminality that degrade socio economic life in the Niger Delta area. This mandate has been JTF’s tenacious focus and guiding principle in the war against oil theft in the region which has been a success as acknowledged even in the media brief by Mr. Mutiu himself.

“If according to the him,JTF has been performing in the immediate past year (2012), how come barely two months into the new year with the arrest of 260 suspects, 8 vessels, 9 barges, 90 wooden boats and the scuttling of 452 illegal oil distilleries, JTF is now being accused of complicity by the same person? The Joint Task Force has not in any way relented in the pursuit of its assigned national task of combating oil theft in the Niger Delta and it really hurts when some persons while attempting to pursue certain agenda best known to them begin to play out a rehearsed dodgy script to politicize an issue that constitutes a major threat to Nigeria’s economic security as orchestrated in SPDC’s outcry.

“The JTF has severally reported breaches on SPDC pipelines and for over two months they did not deem it fit to clamp these breaches and yet they are lamenting. There is more to this outcry than the eyes can meet and should therefore be taking with a pinch of salt. Has anybody ever imagined what the situation would look like if JTF is not in the Niger Delta?

“There is need to even ask the question, who scrutinizes the so called statistics peddled by SPDC? And why is SPDC always having issues with their local host communities over spillages? SPDC has the international contacts with foreigners and not JTF troops who are 24/7 in the mangroves, SPDC knows the network and layout of its pipelines and not JTF troops,they have the expertise to crack or clamp the pipes and not JTF troops. SPDC actually needs to look inward for the oil thieves.

“Talking about oil thieves going haywire and setting up tank farms and barge building yards according to the MD SPDC, the general belief is that the oil companies are stakeholders in the security of Nigeria’s oil sector and that there is supposed to be a synergy between them and security agencies in the country including the JTF which is at their beck and call. If they have this information and keep it to themselves rather than report it in an interface with JTF or other security agencies but only to be read on the pages of newspapers, it leaves one in much doubt as to the credibility of this outcry.

” JTF is not a loafers’ gang. It has in place, a robust and aggressive strategy within its mandate, with which it is combating oil theft in the Niger Delta. First, the JTF has been expanded in terms of its components and area of responsibility to cover the 9 oil producing states, bringing on board, aside traditional security agencies, other security and civil agencies such as Department of State Security, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Customs and Immigration Services,Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) etc. This is premised on the multi disciplinary and multi faceted nature of the battle against oil theft and the need for synergy among stakeholders at all levels.

“How then can operatives drawn from diverse security agencies come to a consensus to plunder the nation through oil theft and none of them is disagreeing with the plot? It is quite an incredible feat to achieve.

“The entire JTF is divided into 5 sectors to cover the nine oil producing states, spreading from Ondo, Edo, Delta states which are covered by sector 1 of the JTF; Bayelsa and Rivers states are covered by Sector 2 ; Cross River and Akwa Ibom are covered by Sector 3; while Abia State is covered by Sector 4 and Imo state is covered by Sector 5. Each of these sectors have carried out reconnaissance on the various oil installations in its area of responsibility and have deployed joint patrol teams comprising all the security agencies earlier mentioned both in the waterways and on land to police these installations. In addition to this, JTF operations are supported by a Nigerian Air Force component with platforms in Benin and Port Harcourt from which over fly patrols are carried out in the region.

“When arrests are made during patrols, the vessel, barge or whatever means is used to perpetrate the theft is impounded and preliminary investigations are carried out on the suspects to ascertain their degree of culpability. Once this is done with, the suspects are handed over to the prosecuting agencies i.e. Nigeria Police, EFCC and NSCDC since JTF does not possess prosecutorial powers. While the prosecution is ongoing the apparatus used in committing the crime i.e. barges, vessels etc are kept in custody until the prosecution is over. These apparatus cannot be conveyed to court during prosecution, but are berthed in dockyards or anchored around houseboats where they are protected by JTF troops.

“These are the overfly pictures paraded by SPDC and referred to as complicity. This was a show of a complete lack of understanding of an operation that is amphibious in nature by SPDC. The JTF has a mandate to scuttle in situ any apparatus, vessels, barges, boats, trucks etc. used to perpetrate oil theft particularly when the thieves abscond and this is aimed at making oil theft cost-ineffective thereby discouraging it. This has always there been done in the glare of the news media.

“Aside this, JTF is also engaged in anti oil theft advocacy and enlightenment campaigns with inhabitants of host communities where oil installations are either located or pass through to join in the fight by partnering with JTF, since they are at the receiving end of the devastating environmental pollution caused by oil theft and spillages from pipeline vandalism.”

Men of the Nigerian Air Force Regiment demonstrate their skills after having alighted from a Mi-35P attack helicopter during the maiden edition of the NAF AIR EXPO in Kaduna, May 2010.

Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service commandos do their traditionally qualitative thing

PHOTO CREDIT: NIGERIAN NAVY

An Otokar Cobra APC on urban counterterrorism counterinsurgency patrols

March 3, 2013
KANO (AFP)
(additional reporting by VOICE OF NIGERIA)

The military said Sunday that it killed 20 Boko Haram Islamists while repelling an attack by the extremist group in the embattled northeastern state of Borno. “Boko Haram terrorists attempted to
attack a military barracks (in Borno) at
about 5:00 am (0400 GMT),” spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said in a statement.

He said the attack occurred in the village of Monguno, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Borno’s restive capital of Maiduguri, considered Boko Haram’s home base where the radical group has been blamed for scores of deadly attacks.

VOICE OF NIGERIA quote Lieutenant Colonel Musa as haven stated that “the attack was repelled by JTF troops at the outskirts of the barracks. The encounter led to the death of 20 Boko Haram members…Four wheel drive vehicles and eight motorcycles they used, were destroyed.” Musa confirmed.

Other items recovered from the sect include; seven AK 47 rifles, 10 rocket propelled grenades, and large quantity of assorted ammunition.

Similarly, two high profile Boko Haram commanders linked to a series of explosions in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, have been arrested by the military. According to Musa, the remarkable success was recorded following intelligence information.

He said the arrested persons were
responsible for the explosions in
Maiduguri on Thursday, February 28. They are presently undergoing
interrogation.

Boko Haram’s insurgency is estimated to have left 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

The Islamists have said they are fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, but their demands have repeatedly shifted. A video posted on YouTube last month featured gunmen claiming to be from Boko Haram who said they abducted a French family of seven from a Cameroon nature park near the Nigerian border. The video marked a departure for the Islamist group, which had never before claimed the kidnapping of a Westerner and some have questioned whether the Nigerian Islamists did in fact carry out the abductions.

Tavor rifle-wielding ground troops of the Nigerian Air Force board a G222 plane enroute Niamey

AVM Tayo Oguntoyinbo(c), AFISMA Air Component Commander flanked by very senior NAF officers

photo courtesy of: AP Photo/David Guttenfelder

US AFRICOM Commander, General Carter F. Ham

WALL STREET JOURNAL
By DREW HINSHAW and ADAM ENTOUS
—Devlin Barrett and Musa Ibrahim
contributed to this article.
26 February, 2013
KUMBOTSO, Nigeria

The shooting clattered on for 30 minutes, residents of this dusty town say, and when it ended, four militants holding a German engineer hostage were dead. So were the engineer, and four innocent bystanders.

In vast West Africa, a new front-line
region in the battle against al Qaeda,
Nigeria is America’s strategic linchpin, its military one the U.S. counts on to help contain the spread of Islamic militancy. Yet Nigeria has rebuffed American attempts to train that military, whose history of shooting freely has U.S. officials concerned that soldiers here fuel the very militancy they are supposed to counter.

It is just one example of the limits to what is now American policy for policing
troubled parts of the world: to rely as
much as possible on local partners. The U.S. and Nigerian authorities don’t fully trust each other, limiting cooperation against the threat. And U.S. officials say they are wary of sharing highly sensitive intelligence with the Nigerian government and security services for fear it can’t be safeguarded. Nigerian officials concede militants have informants within the government and
security forces.

For the U.S., though, cooperation with Nigeria is unavoidable. The country is
America’s largest African trading partner
and fifth-largest oil supplier. Some 30,000 Americans work here. Nigeria has by far the biggest army in a region where al Qaeda has kidnapped scores of
Westerners, trained local militants to rig
car bombs and waged war across an
expanse of Mali the size of Texas. Last
month, al Qaeda-linked extremists’ attack on a natural-gas plant in faraway Algeria left at least 37 foreigners dead.

In Nigeria, a homegrown Islamic
extremist group loosely called Boko
Haram has for years attacked churches
and schools. The name translates as
“Western education is sin.” Now, the sect’s followers are joining a broader holy war, led by al Qaeda and financed by kidnappings. On Feb. 16, militants in Nigeria’s Muslim north abducted seven mostly European construction workers. Three days later, gunmen crossed into
neighboring Cameroon to kidnap a family of French tourists outside an elephant park. The family appeared in a YouTube video posted this week, its four children squirming on camera, as a spokesman read a message for France, which last month attacked al Qaeda fighters in its former West African colony of Mali.

“We say to the president of France, we
are the jihadists who people refer to as
Boko Haram,” the turban-shrouded man
said. “We are fighting the war that he has declared on Islam.” French officials said they were analyzing the video and considering the difficulties in either entrusting Nigerian soldiers to rescue their citizens or staging a rescue raid in a foreign land.

Such kidnappings, like the attack in
Algeria, show how extremist groups are
leapfrogging borders. Boko Haram has fought alongside the regional al Qaeda affiliate known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM,according to residents of Mali. Hundreds of self-identified Boko Haram fighters last year learned to fire shoulder-mounted weapons at an AQIM-affiliated training camp in Timbuktu, Mali, said a cook who fed them and neighbors who watched them. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau spent much of last year in Mali,according to a senior Nigeria security adviser.

In Boko Haram “you have a group that’s
becoming increasingly efficient and one
that al Qaeda, AQIM, can use down the
road,” said John Giacalone, a Federal
Bureau of Investigation special agent in
New York who oversees counterterrorism work in Africa.

Days after the gas-plant attack in Algeria,French oil company Total SA said it was moving expatriate workers from Nigeria’s capital,
Abuja, to the south of the country, where kidnappings are more common but less violent.

While the French battle militants in Mali,the Obama administration has limited its role to providing logistical and intelligence support and drone surveillance from a base in nearby Niger,believing others such as France, Nigeria and other African allies have more
immediately at stake and should assume most of the risks and costs.

That fits a broader U.S. pattern: After a decade of troop-intensive land wars that have strained American budgets and left the country war-weary, the U.S. is
depending increasingly on regional
powers. “It can’t just be the United States. It can’t just be Europe. It’s got to be the African nations as well joining in this effort,” departing Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta said in an interview.

The new national-security team President Barack Obama has chosen is expected to embrace a light-footprint approach that relies on special forces, drones and local
partners to combat terrorism, officials say.

Mr. Panetta brushed aside doubts about relying on Nigerian forces. “You can’t give up on this thing,” he said. “It’s really important for the African nations to be able to develop their capabilities. I don’t think we should just assume that we can’t do that.”

John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said Nigeria is the African country of the greatest strategic importance to the U.S., but has sought to keep the American military at arm’s length. “The Nigerians regard themselves as the hegemons of West Africa, and they are traditionally suspicious of other
powers involving themselves,” said Mr. Campbell, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Doyin Okupe, senior special assistant to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, agreed that “Nigeria sees itself as a regional power in Africa. It’s the
dominant force, really. Nigeria is a very proud nation. We feel that to subjugate our military under another world power would be to really compromise our integrity.” He said Nigeria is willing to let Western nations supply equipment, “but we might not be too predisposed to subjugating our forces to undergo training under another military.”

Washington has struggled for years to cement close ties with the Nigerian army. The U.S. military’s Africa Command invited the Nigerian military seven years ago to participate in Operation Flintlock,
an annual multinational counterterrorism exercise.Nigerian generals balked at sending a large contingent of soldiers.The U.S. later proposed setting up a specialized counterterrorism unit within the Nigerian military, but it foundered, according to U.S. officials.

After a Nigerian recruited by an al Qaeda branch tried to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas 2009, the U.S. ramped up its approach. Since the thwarted attack, the U.S. has been working with Nigeria on creating an “intelligence fusion center” for rapid sharing of information collected by various Nigerian security services, say State Department officials. U.S. military officials see this as an important first step to see whether the Nigerians can handle security threats themselves.

After two years of effort, the plan has only inched forward, owing to
mistrust among agencies and fighting over funding, officials in both countries say. Nigerian officials have acknowledged that Boko Haram has a web of informants within the government and security services, inhibiting closer cooperation with the U.S.

“Some of them are in the executive arm of government, some of them are in the parliamentary arm of government, while some of them are even in the judiciary,” said Mr. Jonathan, the Nigerian president,
after a bomb blast leveled a church in 2011. He added: “Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies.”

U.S. officials, especially at the State
Department, worry that the Nigerian security force’s free-shooting ways make the security situation worse. Nigeria Police Force Order 237 allows officers to shoot anyone “who takes to flight in order to avoid arrest” and lets
the police decide what constitutes
avoiding arrest. The country’s National Human Rights Commission estimates the police kill 2,500 Nigerians each year. By comparison, Boko Haram has killed
around 2,000 in the four years since the once-obscure group grew into an insurgency, New York’s Human Rights Watch estimates.

Amnesty International posted a report on Nov. 1 that accused the Nigerian army of burning houses, cars and shops and of shooting dead “people who were clearly no threat to life—unarmed, lying down…cooperating with security forces.” One day later, Amnesty said that in just two days, the Nigerian army had shot at least 30
young men. The local nickname for a branch called the Mobile Police is “Kill and Go.”

“Military and police heavy-handedness in the north is core to the story of Boko Haram’s emergence,” said Michael Woldemariam, a professor of African security studies at Boston University. “You can’t discount the effects of the state’s brutality in the north.”

Nigerian generals reject such criticism and note that they send more peacekeepers to the United Nations than all but four other countries. “We are respected all over the world,” said an army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mobolaji Koleoso. “We are talking about decent men and women who are well-trained and well-schooled…. It’s not that we’re going outside to go and kill people.” He called the Amnesty report “frivolous.”

But a growing chorus in the capital is pushing for reform. “There is a
recognition here that things are going to have to be done differently,” said Fatima Akilu, a psychologist named last year as
director of the Nigerian national security office’s new hearts and minds campaign. “Nobody can win this situation using force alone,” she added.

The hostage case in Kumbotso offered a glimpse of the security forces in action. Edgar Raupach was among hundreds of German engineers working in Nigeria’s
booming construction industry, helping pave stretches of road. In January 2012 he disappeared from the northern city of Kano, and word spread in nearby Kumbotso that some men had brought home a German hostage.

Locals said these men were unpopular outsiders who didn’t speak the prevailing Hausa language. If the outsiders weren’t popular with the Nigerian villagers, Nigeria’s national police and armed forces were even less so. Residents at a town council meeting quarreled over whether to tell the security services, some arguing that doing so might just make matters worse,according to people who attended. The outcome was unclear, a council official saying he sent a letter to the government
but got no reply, while other residents doubted a letter was ever sent.

Two months after his kidnapping, the engineer appeared in a video begging his government to meet the demands of men he described as holy warriors from al Qaeda. The group asked for the release of a jailed German woman, Uma Saifullah Al-Ansariya (born Filiz Gelowicz), who had been convicted in Germany of supporting a terrorist group. As it happened, she was due to be released from a German prison in April. She was freed. Mr. Raupach wasn’t.

His Nigerian employer ran an ad in Arabic and English in the region’s leading newspaper: “100 DAYS MISSING. Edgar Fitz Raupach,” it said. “Your sister Uma Saifullah Al-Ansariya (Filiz Gelowicz) is free since two weeks. When do you release our brother EDGAR?? HIS FRIENDS ARE WAITING FOR HIM.”

Eventually, someone slipped word of the hostage’s whereabouts to an agent of Nigeria’s secret service. The response was swift. As village residents rose from the following morning’s prayers,hundreds of Nigerian soldiers stormed into the town. They began to “shoot everywhere,” one
resident says. The gunfire lasted about 30 minutes. The army says the soldiers killed all four kidnappers. Residents say the kidnappers actually numbered about 10. They say four Kumbotso bystanders died in the crossfire.

The military unit declined to comment beyond a press statement. It said that the soldiers weren’t aware the hostage was
there and that his captors stabbed him to death. Hours later, soldiers returned with a bulldozer and destroyed what remained of the kidnappers’ compound, along with
any evidence of their identities.Investigators still aren’t sure who they were.

A Nigerian Air Force C130-H30 Hercules plane in Kaduna, Nigeria waits to convey troops to Mali

PAN AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY
28 February, 2013

excerpts

Nigeria has deployed the full
complement of 1,200 troops it pledged for the African led International Mission in Mali (AFISMA) with the airlifting of the last batch of 162 troops to Mali
Wednesday, the Chief of Army Staff,
Lieutenant General Onyeabo Azubuike said in Abuja.

Receiving the visiting Indian Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Shiri Krishina Singh, General Ihejirika said ‘as of Tuesday, we have all our (Nigerian)
pledged troops in Mali. The remaining 162 left this Wednesday, bringing the total number of troops we have in Mali to over 1,200.

‘With this, the Nigerian Army has
achieved 100 per cent deployment for all ranks to AFISMA.’ The 162 soldiers were airlifted aboard a Nigerian Air Force C-130 transport Hercules aircraft. Another C-130 aircraft,provided by the British Government to assist Nigeria in the AFISMA operation, will airlift Nigerian-owned support equipment, along with another Nigerian C-130 aircraft.

Altogether, the Nigerian Army has a total of battalion plus (910 troops) deployed in Mali. This is in addition to the 300 troops deployed by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) which is based in Niamey, Niger. The NAF also have two fighter jets and an Mi-35 helicopter gunship also based in Niger.

An imposing 12.7mm HMG-armed Otokar Cobra APC on urban CT-COIN operations

VANGUARD
February 26, 2013
Soni Daniel
Regional Editor, North

A top Boko Haram commander was
Tuesday killed in a morning raid carried out by snipers deployed from the Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Hope, Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The BH kingpin and his lieutenants are
said to have crossed from Kano State to Borno some weeks ago and had been carrying out series of attacks on JTF patrol vehicles and locations as well as the bombing of many places in the state.

However,the four men and their fighters ran out of luck when soldiers from the JTF confronted them in a gun duel following a tipoff on their location, which was traced to the Kasuwan Kaji area of the metropolis. The battle was taken by the soldiers to the insurgents between the hours of 2am and 5.50 am on Monday when the fighters were still enjoying their sleep.

On arriving at the location, the JTF were said to have cordoned off the area and
carried out checks on suspected houses and business premises during which the kingpins reportedly opened fire on the soldiers without knowing that they were in for a rough deal.

The Spokesman for the JTF, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, confirmed the raid on the BH hideout and the death of its commander and three of his lieutenants during the raid. Musa also said that three other BH
fighters arrested by soldiers during the raid, had been detained in their custody and were undergoing interrogation.

“The notorious BH commander and three of his lieutenants lost their lives
in an exchange of fire while three were arrested by the JTF and are undergoing interrogation in JTF custody.

“Items recovered from the terrorists
included: three AK- 47 rifles, two dane guns, three magazines, 36 rounds of 7.62 mm special ammunition, two bows and 18 arrows and assorted IED materials,” Musa said.

An Agusta A109e Power of the Nigerian Navy Air Arm prepares to land on NNS Thunder F90

THE GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
24 February, 2013

SAFETY of the maritime environment for smooth sailing of merchant vessels has prompted United States of America’s interest in this year’s international sea exercise tagged ‘Exercise Obangame Express,’ hosted by the Republic of Cameroun.

The USA, a major sponsor of the programme, is leading fifteen other
countries from Africa and Europe in the
sea exercise billed to end on March 1,
2013. The goal of the exercise, according to US authorities, is to improve maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea. According to the Director of the operation, Captain David Rollo, a former Defence Adviser to the American
Embassy in Nigeria,the exercise is aimed at improving the abilities of the
navies of the world to stamp out criminality at the sea.

“The objective of the whole exercise is
to improve communications among the
navies and also improve our abilities to
work together. It is also aimed at
improving our abilities to intercept
illicit vessels. Communication has always remained an issue in world military, we would keep improving on communications.”

He lauded the Nigerian Navy for taking
the exercise seriously and deploying
three of its craft for the operation.According to him, “We are proud of the
Nigerian Navy for deploying two of their
vessels and the maritime patrol aircraft
of the Nigerian Airforce for the exercise. We have Nigerians here in the exercise and instructors for the boarding operations. Nigerian Navy has been very professional, very competent and very much a regional leader.” “My expectation is to be able to have a
successful exercise and be able to bring
everybody back safely unhurt. The biggest success is when you take people
to sea and you bring them back safely.
That is what we have always prayed for.” Rollo added.

The US military chief urged world navies to do away with the belief that piracy is
only a major issue in the water of
Somalia.

An Otokar Cobra APC on urban counterterrorism counterinsurgency patrols

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
February 24, 2013
Kano

The Joint Security Task Force (JTF) on Saturday shot dead two suspected gunmen and arrested four others in the Kano metropolis. An eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the incident happened around 1:00 p.m. at a security checkpoint on Hadeja Road in Kano City.

The witness said the incident occurred
during ‘a stop and search’ on a commercial vehicle at the checkpoint. ‘’It was in the process that one of the
passengers opened fire on the operatives at the checkpoint and as a
result one soldier was injured. ‘’Soon after that the security operatives responded by killing the attacker instantly,’’ the source said. It was learnt that another passenger in the vehicle brought out a knife and tried to attack the solders but he was also shot dead instantly.

When contacted, the JTF spokesman,
Capt. Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the
incident and the killing of the two
gunmen. He said the incident happened at a checkpoint when the operatives were carrying out a search on a commercial vehicle when a passenger opened fire on the soldiers. Iweha said that two suspects were shot dead while four others were arrested during the incident.

The spokesman said that investigation
had since commenced to ascertain the
identities of the suspects while security had also been beefed up in the area.

US AFRICOM Commander, General Carter F. Ham

THE GUARDIAN
25 February, 2013

THOUGH the debate about the rightness
or otherwise of the use of external forces to check the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria has simmered down, it may be stoked with a planned
intervention of the United States (U.S.) in the crisis.

Apparently worried by the increasing
activities of Boko Haram not only in
Nigeria but in other African countries,
President Barack Obama and the U.S.
government are now taking the threat
posed by the group more seriously and they are already considering military
options, including the deployment of
drones and spy planes.

At the weekend, President Obama under War Powers Resolution of the U.S. Public Law, increased the number of American military personnel deployed to Nigeria’s border country, Niger, to 100, just about a week after the incoming Commander of the U. S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), Gen. David M. Rodriguez of the U.S. Army, confirmed that Boko Haram operations now cut across Nigeria, Cameroun, Niger, Mali and Chad.

U.S. local media had reported about the
same time that the deployment of U.S.
military to Niger is with the intention of
setting up a drone base to gather
intelligence without ruling out drone
attacks against terrorists in Mali and Nigeria. In an even more categorical statement, Gen. Rodriguez disclosed that the U.S. military already had sufficient legal authorisation to go after Boko Haram’s operatives in Nigeria or in the African region based on existing military authorisations against Al-Qaeda.

In a February 22 letter to the leaders of
the U.S. Congress, made available to The
Guardian yesterday, Obama confirmed
that by February 20, 2013, “the last
elements of a deployment of approximately 40 additional U.S. military personnel entered Niger with
the consent of the Government of Niger.” According to Obama in the letter he
personally signed, “this deployment will
provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate
intelligence sharing with French forces
conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region. The total
number of U.S. military personnel deployed in Niger is approximately 100.
The recently deployed forces have …
weapons for the purpose of providing
their own force protection and security.”

US AFRICOM Commander, General Carter F. Ham

WASHINGTON
Fri Feb 22, 2013(Reuters)

The Pentagon has deployed about 100 troops to the West African nation of Niger to conduct unmanned reconnaissance flights over Mali and share intelligence with French forces fighting al Qaeda-affiliated militants, President Barack Obama told Congress on Friday.

Obama, in a letter to congressional
leaders, said the last 40 of the approximately 100 military personnel had arrived in Niger on Wednesday and were “deployed with weapons for the purpose of providing their own force protection and security.” “This deployment will provide support for
intelligence collection and will also
facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region,” the president said.

The United States and Niger signed a
Status of Forces Agreement last month
that governs the presence of American
troops in the country, paving the way for
sending unarmed drones and military
personnel. A Pentagon official said U.S. Africa Command, which handles military ties with Africa, had sent the unmanned
planes to Niger “to support a range of
regional security missions and
engagements with partner nations.”

“This effort is designed to promote
regional stability in support of U.S.
diplomacy and national security and to
strengthen relationships with regional
leaders committed to security and
prosperity,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

France intervened in Mali, which borders Niger, last month as Islamist forces, who seized control of the north in the confusion following a military coup in
March 2012, pushed towards the capital
Bamako. That lifted Mali to the forefront of U.S. and European security concerns, with fears the Islamists would turn the country into a base for international attacks.

The United States already has drones and surveillance aircraft stationed at several points around Africa. Its only permanent military base is in the small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 miles from Mali. Niger gave permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior Niger government source said in January.

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
Thu, 21/02/2013

Ex-militants and other residual groups in Delta returned 14,586 weapons and
ammunition, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Amnesty programme said in Warri, Delta, on Thursday.

The Chief Coordinator of the IATF, AVM James Gbum, made the fact known
during the display of weapons surrendered by ex-militants to the Joint
Task Force (JTF) and other security
agencies in Delta. Gbum said the Federal Government set up IATF because of complaints from some ex-militants over alleged marginalisation in the amnesty programme. “It is in response to these agitations and claims that the President constituted IATF to carry out the verification and reconciliation of disarmament records as well as document the residual ex-militants, who actually surrendered weapons to the JTF and other security agencies.

“This is aimed at enhancing the security
of lives and property in the region,’’ he
said. Gbum clarified that the display of
weapons and ammunition was not a
fresh amnesty programme as some
believed but a mop up exercise. “The mandate of the task force in Delta is simply to reconcile the disarmament
records and document formerly armed
youths in the state. “This is a mop up exercise of weapons and ammunition that were surrendered to the JTF and other security Agencies up till March 2009.”

Gbum explained that IATF had concluded
its work and “those who are qualified to be included in the Amnesty programme have been duly documented. “It is also worthy of note that some youths are parading themselves about and making a lot of noise as ex-militants. “However, during the course of reconciling the disarmament records, the task force discovered that they surrendered primitive and archaic weapons, such as dane guns, cutlasses and catapults, to security agencies. “This category of persons does not qualify for the programme. And some of them who were crafty enough to present fake documents to the task force were promptly detected and screened out.’’

Among the weapons surrendered were
10,821 single barrel guns, 636 locally-
made pistols, 444 locally-made double
barrel guns, 2,451 locally-made dane
guns and 662 pump action guns. Gbum added that the weapons would be moved to 82 Division of Nigerian Army,
Enugu, for destruction as spelt out in the
UN extant demobilisation and
reconciliation rules.

Nigerian troops and a 4WD van at the scene of a suicide bomb attack

VANGUARD
February 21, 2013
BY NDAHI MARAMA
MAIDUGURI

Barely 24 hours after some suspected
terrorists detonated an Improvised
Explosive Device (IED) targeted at a
Joint Task Force (JTF) patrol vehicle at the popular Post Office Roundabout, which claimed the lives of the bomber and a woman with her child, another IED still targeted at the JTF patrol vehicle exploded at the Customs area of
troubled Maiduguri, Thursday.

Our correspondent gathered that the
terrorists who were stationed along
the Main Gamboru-Customs road threw the IED at a JTF patrol vehicle which injured the occupants and damaged the patrol vehicle . The incident which took place at about 2pm led to sporadic exchange of gunfire between members of the sect and the JTF operatives, a situation which led to the killing of three innocent civilians, some shops, buildings and a private fuel station
were also razed down by fire in the
process.

In honor of the 68th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, we dedicate this edition of “Photo Friday” to all the galant warriors who fought on those eight square miles of hell.

Two U.S. Marines direct flame throwers at Japanese defenses that block the way to Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi on March 4, 1945. On the left is Pvt. Richard Klatt, of North Fond Dulac, Wisconsin, and on the right is PFC Wilfred Voegeli.

photo courtesy of: AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps

JSTF soldier(r)and cop on urban combat and house clearing operations at Damaturu, Yobe State, NE Nigeria

REUTERS
By Tansa Musa and Ibrahim Mshelizza
YAOUNDE/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria
Thu Feb 21, 2013

Nigerian security forces surrounded the
kidnappers of a French family in northeast Borno state on Thursday in an operation to rescue the hostages, a Nigerian military source said. French, Nigerian and Cameroonian officials earlier denied French media reports that the family, who were seized in Cameroon and taken over the border,
had been freed.

The Nigerian military located the
hostages and kidnappers between Dikwa and Ngala in the far northeast, the military source in Borno said, asking not to be identified. Dikwa is less than 80 km (50 miles) from the border with Cameroon where the three adults and four children were taken hostage on Tuesday.

A senior Cameroonian military official
declined to comment saying the matter
was too sensitive. Citing a Cameroon army officer, French media reported earlier on Thursday that the hostages had been found alive in a house in northern Nigeria. “This is a crazy rumor that we cannot confirm. We do not know where is it coming from,” Cameroon Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary told Reuters by telephone from the capital Yaounde. “What is certain is that the French tourists who were abducted are no longer on our territory. However, we are in touch with the Government of Nigeria to intensify measures to continue the search for them along our common border,” he said.

French gendarmes backed by special
forces arrived in northern Cameroon on
Wednesday to help locate the family, a
local governor and French defense
ministry official said. Nigerian military spokesman Sagir Musa earlier also said the report on France’s BFM television of the hostages being released was “not true,” while Didier Le Bret, the head of the French foreign ministry’s crisis center, said the information was “baseless.”

The abduction was the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly
Muslim north of Cameroon, a former
French colony. But the region – like others in West and North Africa with porous borders – is considered within the operational sphere of Boko Haram and fellow Nigerian Islamist militants Ansaru. On Sunday, seven foreigners were snatched from the compound of Lebanese construction company Setraco in northern Nigeria’s Bauchi state, and Ansaru took responsibility.

Northern Nigeria is increasingly afflicted
by attacks and kidnappings by Islamist
militants. Ansaru, which rose to
prominence only in recent months, has
claimed the abduction in December of a
French national who is still missing.Three foreigners were killed in two failed rescue attempts last year after being kidnapped in northern Nigeria and Ansaru, blamed for those kidnaps,
warned this could happen again.

The threat to French nationals in the
region has grown since France deployed thousands of troops to Mali to oust al
Qaeda-linked Islamists who controlled
the country’s north. The kidnapping in Cameroon brought to 15 the number of French citizens being held in West Africa.

Nigerian Army troops respond to a bomb scare

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
February 20, 2013
Maiduguri

The Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Restore Order on Wednesday confirmed the killing of three persons after an explosion in Maiduguri.

JTF spokesman Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa stated this in a statement in Maiduguri. “An explosive devise targeted at the JTF patrol team exploded at the Post Office roundabout in Maiduguri at about 1.00 p.m. on Wednesday. “The explosion led to the death of three civilians,comprising the bomber and two others, and a JTF vehicle was damaged.”

He assured the public that the JTF was
on top of the situation in the state, in
spite of the development.“Consequently, the JTF reiterates its determination to ensure the maintenance of law, order and safety of lives and property of law abiding residents of Borno State.”

Musa also urged residents to disregard
leaflets being circulated by suspected
terrorists on impending attacks in Maiduguri. “The attention of the JTF has been drawn to some leaflets allegedly
printed and circulated by Boko Haram
terrorists group containing a message
from their leader Abubakar Shekau. “The message contained threats and warning to civil servants, politicians,traditional rulers and security agents that the sect has not made any reconciliation with the government and has not declared a cease fire.

“The JTF wishes to advise law abiding
members of the public to disregard such publications and consider them as part of the terrorists propaganda strategy to keep the civil populace in captivity.”

Major General SY Audu, Chief of Defence Intelligece

(PHOTO CREDIT: DISNIGERIA)

VOICE OF NIGERIA
Posted on February 19, 2013
By Collins Atohengbe
Pretoria

The Chief of Defence Intelligence,Nigerian Armed Forces, Major General
Sanni Audu, has expressed satisfaction
with the level of bilateral military
cooperation between Nigeria and South
Africa. At a reception organized for him by the Nigerian Defence Adviser to South Africa, Commodore Saleh Usman,General Audu said military relations between Abuja and Pretoria contributed to the ousting of the defunct apartheid regime.He said there was constant
complimentary training programme at
common level of defence colleges at
Abuja and Pretoria for officers of their
armed forces.

Major General Audu said Nigeria and
South Africa had enormous responsibilities of ensuring socio-political stability at regional level in West Africa and Southern Africa. He noted that both countries had been doing this quite well. The Chief of Defence Intelligence said it was too early to judge the performance of the African Forces deployed in Mali for peace keeping.

“For us to assess, it is rather too early.
Why I say this is that by December last
year, the initial plan was for troop
contributing countries to prepare their
logistic requirements and be ready to
launch their troops into operation in 90 days but unfortunately, with the dynamism of what was happening there, you will realize that the period
between December and January is even
less than two months. So we ended up
moving in earlier than anticipated. The danger in this is that a few areas really
needed to be beefed up for everybody
to be fully prepared for that operation,” Major General Audu said.

He said Nigeria already had over 350 soldiers on ground in Mali and that more
would be sent to meet the number
pledged while other African nations
worked to meet their quota contribution
as well.

Commodore Usman said General Audu was in South Africa in continuation of his duty to inspect facilities available to
enable Nigerian Defence Advisers and
Attaches perform their scheduled duties
at Nigerian missions abroad. The Chief of Defence Intelligence has visited 16 out 26 Nigeria’s Defence Advisers posts at Nigeria’s Diplomatic Missions abroad. He was accompanied on the visit by the
Director of Foreign Liaison at the Defence Headquarters, Brigadier General Olusola Akinfolarin.

Major General Audu has since left South
Africa back to Nigeria.

Gen(rtd) S-Y Bello(l)(then JTF Commander) with outgone CDS, ACM (rtd)PAUL DIKE(c)in the Niger Delta,2010

THE GUARDIAN
19 February, 2013

FOR the Federal Government to engage in direct negotiations with Boko
Haram, the group has to constitute a credible leadership or its leader Ibrahim Shekau has to publicly renounce violence and embrace dialogue as a path to peace.

This was the position of the Federal
Government as articulated Monday by
the National Coordinator of Counter
Terrorism and Insurgency in the Office
of the National Security Adviser (NSA),
Maj.-Gen. Sarkin Yakin Bello.

Bello also disclosed that the country
would soon set up a National Counter
Terrorism Centre that would serve as a
processing centre for all intelligence,
which would address the peculiar security challenges of the country.

Bello said at the National Defence College, Abuja while addressing visiting
top United States military leaders and
their Nigerian counterparts that Nigeria
had a primary interest in the
containment of the terrorists in Mali as the country had been providing safe
haven for the Boko Haram elements in
Nigeria.

Noting that membership of the terrorist
groups also included nationals drawn
from Niger, Chad and Cameroun, Bello
declared that “to finally solve the Boko
Haram challenge in Nigeria, the umbilical cord between it and other terror groups need to be broken. And
that is what is happening right now in
Mali. Most of the insurgents in Northern
Nigeria come from Mali. So, we have a
primary interest to contain the terrorists in Mali. There is a containment interest, which is in our national interest. That (Mali) is where Boko Haram members get their training,funding and bases. They are well established there.”

Explaining that the Federal Government
was not averse to negotiating with the
terror group as a way of bringing peace,
Bello said that “if a credible leadership
shows itself, government is ready to
negotiate with them. If (leader of the Boko Haram sect, Ibrahim) Shekau can
come out, using his usual medium, to
renounce violence, the government will
be ready for the dialogue.”

He stated that of all forms of terrorism
in different parts of the world including
the United States of America and Israel,
that of Nigeria was peculiar. “I have not
seen any country as challenged as Nigeria. For Nigeria, it is people like me, people like you, living in the same area, with same language that are the members of the Boko Haram. They live
among us. Some are our cousins”, he
said.

In honor of the 68th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, we wanted to share some more images taken by the famous photographer. Below are some of Rosenthal’s lesser know photographs from Iwo Jima. Though they did not receive the recognition and fame like his pulitzer prize winning flag raising photograph, these images give the viewer a glimpse at the brutality the US Marines endured for 35 long days.

These photos are all courtesy of the late Joe Rosenthal and originally posted by the denverpost.com

MARCH 3, 1945 U.S. Marines receive Communion from a Marine chaplain on Iwo Jima. The battle for the island was extremely costly for both sides: only about a thousand of the 25,000 Japanese defenders survived; the Americans suffered about 26,000 casualties. The island was not fully secured by the American forces until March 26, but the needed airfields were up and running earlier.

In the Pacific theater of World War II, U.S. Marines hit the beach and charge over a dune on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands Feb. 19, 1945, the start of one of the deadliest battles of the war against Japan.

U.S. Marines invade the Japanese stronghold at Iwo Jima, Volcanic Island, on Feb. 19, 1945. The fourth division Marines dig foxholes, center, uncovering dead bodies, and await further orders. The Japanese pillbox-blockhouse, which was considered unconquerable, can be seen at center in the background.

Two U.S. Marines, slumped in death, lie where they fell on Iwo Jima, among the first victims of Japanese gunfire as the American conquest of the strategic Japanese Volcano Island begins on Feb. 19, 1945 during World War II.

U.S. Marines of the 4th Division charge ashore at the start of the Iwo Jima invasion, as they run for cover in shell holes and bomb craters made by pre-invasion bombardments, on Feb. 25, 1945 during World War II. Warships offshore give heavy gun support. At center in the background is a wreckage of a Japanese ship.

U.S. Marines of the Fourth Division shield themselves in abandoned Japanese trench and bomb craters formed during U.S. invasion and amphibious landing at Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Island stronghold, on Feb. 19, 1945 in World War II. A battered Japanese ship is at right in the background at right.

Dead Japanese soldiers who defended the stronghold lie at the feet of U.S. Marines following American invasion of Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Island, March 2, 1945 in World War II.

A wounded U.S. Marine soldier, lying on stretcher at left, is given blood plasma by American Navy hospital corpsmen on Iwo Jima, Japan, on March 3, 1945 during World War II. Two Marines can be seen walking away, at right, after getting medical attention. The aid station is surrounded by captured Japanese equipment.

The booted feet of a dead Japanese soldier, foreground, protrude from beneath a mound of earth on Iwo Jima during the American invasion of the Japanese Volcano Island stronghold in 1945 in World War II. U.S. Marines can be seen nearby in foxholes.

U.S. Marines aboard a landing craft head for the beaches of Iwo Jima Island, Japan, on Feb. 19, 1945 during World War II. In the background is Mount Suribachi, the extinct volcano captured by the Marines after a frontal assault.

U.S. Corpsmen carry a wounded Marine on a stretcher to an evacuation boat on the beach at Iwo Jima while other Marines huddle in a foxhole during the invasion of the Japanese Volcano Island stronghold in this file photo of Feb. 25, 1945. A search team is on the island looking for a cave where the Marine combat photographer who filmed the famous World War II flag raising 62 years ago is believed to have been killed in battle nine days later, military officials said Friday, June 22, 2007. The team, from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, is on Iwo Jima looking for the remains of Sgt. Willam H. Genaust and “as many other American servicemen as they can find,” JPAC spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Brown told The Associated Press.

U.S. Marines walk amid wreckage of Japanese planes alongside Motoyamo Airstrip No. 1 that were brought down during aerial bombing and naval shelling prior to American invasion of Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Island stronghold, March 1, 1945.

Commandos of the Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service, working with a foreign trainer and in conjunction with the British-assisted Joint Maritime Security Training Centre(JMSTC), serve as a demonstration squad for the impartation of skills to the Nigeria Police Force’s MOPOL SWAT teams.

PHOTO CREDIT: DP REVIEW

THISDAY
By Chiemelie Ezeobi

The United States Government has pegged the total amount spent on the intensive training for personnel of the Joint Maritime Security Training Centre (JMSTC), the purchase of six 25-feet light patrol boats and spare parts at about $1million. The United States Consulate General, Jeffery Hawkins, disclosed this at the graduation ceremony of 25 personnel of the Nigerian Navy (NN) at the JMSTC and the commissioning of two additional speed patrol boats which held at Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos.

The JMSTC was initiated as a capacity building assistance from United Kingdom Government to train Nigerian security personnel in the fields of maritime security, littoral and riverine operations in collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN). The Consul General said the gesture was part of the US’s longstanding relationship with Nigeria and its quest to collaborate in securing the nation’s maritime domain.

Nigeria took delivery of the six boats from the US which was facilitated by its embassy through the foreign military Sales (FMS) programme. He said the American training team had tutored 25 personnel of the Nigerian Navy (5 officers and 20 ratings) in basic boat handling, basic outboard engine maintenance and trouble shooting of outboard engines, among others.

In his response, the guest of honour, the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Saad Ibrahim, said the purpose of the centre is to provide a focal point for maritime security training activities across the Armed Forces as well as law enforcement agencies in Nigeria in order to assist in enhancing their effectiveness in conducting joint littoral, riverine and maritime operations. The CDS, who was represented by the Commandant, Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Center (NAFRC), Air Vice Marshal Moses Akinsanmi, said plans are on going to make the center a regional training centre of excellence for the West African sub-region.

He said, “Our taking delivery of the boats shows the commitment of the Nigerian Government in curbing maritime crimes, growing threat of terrorism and enhancing maritime security within Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea through training of its armed forces with state of the art equipment.”

Maj Gen Ken Osuji, Ag. Commander NA Corps of Infantry(l) and Brig Gen Tijani Golau, Director CTCIC(c) with a graduand of the Batch 6/2012 intake mid-year 2012

THE GUARDIAN
16 February, 2013

THE Nigerian Army has graduated 2,094 soldiers trained in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency skills, even as it prepares a “Reserve Force” for emergency situations.

The BCTC course 9/13 held at the
Nigerian Army Training Centre(NATRAC) Kontagora, Niger State, graduated 225 females and 1869 men to tackle “contemporary security challenges and engage any terrorist or such insurgents as the need arises.”

The Chief of Army Staff,General Azubuike Ihejirika, advised the graduates to adhere strictly to rules of engagement and “utilise all combat proficiency skills they have acquired during the few weeks of intensive training to exhibit high sense of professionalism in the conduct of assigned duties.”

The Commander of NATRAC, Major General Stephen Audu, said within the
six weeks of training, every facility
requisite for the exercise and
convenience was mobilised to ensure a
hitch-free programme. He reminded them that as combat proficient soldiers, they would be actively engaged in internal security duties. Audu said the combat competencies and leadership skills passed to the graduating soldiers is deliberate, to “task them to the limit of their endurance, improve their knowledge of skill at arms, sharpen their combat techniques and impart siege mentality and confidence in handling threat situations as well as physical fitness.”

Lieutenant General Ihejirika also
commissioned refurbished vehicles at
Artillery Headquarters in Kontagora. He
charged the personnel to be resilient and committed to the service of Nigeria.

Earlier, the Director of Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency (CTCOIN), Brigadier General T. Golau, said: “The main objective of the course was to give the young soldiers the requisite skill and knowledge to combat the current wave of contemporary security challenges in Nigeria.” Golau assured that “the graduands will perform well in the field when deployed for special operations “having been well trained in “house breaking and clearing, urban patrol, unarmed combat, skills at arms and drills, IED recognition and disposal and the dynamics of terrorism and insurgency as they relate to Boko
Haram, among others.”

Built by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, each OPV cost about US$50 million. The vessels, each with a maximum displacement of 1,635 tonnes, were commissioned in 2006-2007 and make extensive use of COTS technologies to keep the acquisition and maintenance costs low.

Each OPV has a length of 95.5 metres, beamwidth of 11.6 metres, displaces 1,440 tonnes, is crewed by a complement of 84 personnel, and is powered by twin Rushton 16RK270 diesel engines driving twin controllable-pitch propellers.

The armaments package comprises one OTOBREDA 76/62 main gun and twin 40mm secondary guns. Both OPVs also feature one rear helicopter deck capable of housing helicopters like the AgustaWestland-built Super Lynx Mk300.

The OPVs’ combat management system is STN ATLAS of Germany’s COSYS Mk1, which was selected in June 2003. STN Atlas was also the overall systems integrator. The fire-control systems include one TMX supplied by Oerlikon Contraves AG. Rohde & Schwarz has supplied the integrated communications system, while Raytheon Marine GmbH’s integrated platform and machinery management system has been installed. SELEX Sistemi Integrati was selected in April 2003 to supply two X-band RAN 30X/I mast-mounted naval surveillance radars worth Euros 6 million.

The RAN 30X/I has four operational modes: surface and air surveillance mode for small airborne/surface targets; navigation and helicopter control mode with high antenna rotation speed for navigation close to the coastline; over- the-horizon detection mode with low- antenna rotation speed and long-range detection capability; and anti-sea- skimming cruise missile detection mode, with high-antenna rotation speed to detect and track very small manoeuvring targets.

(data: INDIA DEFENCE)