Nigerian Army to Establish a Brigade in Sambisa Forest

 

The Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Tukur Buratai has moved to secure the Sambisa forest which has been referred to as the stronghold of the Boko Haram terrorist group. The latest strategy adopted is a budding plan to establish a Special Task Force Battalion to be stationed in the dreaded Sambisa Forest.

 

According to the Punch, the rationale behind this, is to take attack the Boko Haram fighters at their base and also to re-organize the army.

 

Additionally, the army has dissolved its court-martial and the cases of some soldiers will be weighed again.

The latest move is believed to be part of the comprehensive plans to get the insurgents out of their Sambisa base and prevent them from having territories which they could use to carry out attacks in the Lake Chad Basin area.

 

According to a security source that spoke to the PUNCH, the planned brigade will be named the 29th Special Task Force Brigade under 7th Division with the major aim of chasing the sect out of the area. The forest is strongly used by the terrorists as hideouts from which they orchestrate attacks on civilians.

“You know that the Sambisa Forest is very vast and they are still staging their attacks from the forest. What the Chief wants to do is to establish the brigade in the forest and take the fight to them.

“The brigade will be there permanently to go after the insurgents, destroy their stronghold and restore sanity in the area. The troops are very excited about the idea” the source said.

Meanwhile, a security analyst, Ben Okezie has criticized the planned strategy which he believes its unnecessary as the army already have a military command in Borno state.