Two days ago i received unconfirmed reports that Nigeria is interested in aquiring more combat drones from Turkey and amoured vehicles. I cannot report on it because they are "unverified" (but highly plausible) reports.
Woke up to news that a senior US senator Bob Menendez has proposed measures targeting Turkey’s defense sector exports . He introduced measures to put Turkey’s drone program under harsh scrutiny. Menendez’ seek to tighten US tracking and reporting on the national security
implications of Turkey’s drone exports. How Turkeys drone exports todeveloping countries pose a national security threat to the U.S is hard to fathtom. The senator has claimed that Turkey’s drone sales are “dangerous, destabilizing and a threat to peace and human rights.”
Angola, Nigeria, and Rwanda have expressed interest in purchasing Turkish drones. Menendez’ proposed changes would require the US state and defense departments to probe whether Turkish drones contain US-made parts or technology.
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Another classic example of the mutually beneficial relationship between terrorist organizations and the media. ISWAP is adept at exploiting the media for the benefit of their operational efficiency and propaganda schemes.
Terrorists media related goals are the same: attention, recognition, and perhaps even a degree of respectability and legitimacy in their various publics. Media, in return, receives the attention of the public that is vital for its existence and benefits from huge audiences.
Its fair to argue that the mutually beneficial relationship between terrorism and today’s media is a problem. This symbiosis is indeed worth examining in greater detail, as it is as vicious and dangerous as it is largely overlooked.
From 2014 to 2019 ISWAP fighters rained down terror on Nigeria. When the fighting gets too intense they slip across the border to the relative safety of their enclaves in the Lake Chad basin, beyond the reach of the NAF. They engaged in commerce, got married, built a fishing
..industry, even setup quasi government without fear. The presence of U.S and French drone bases meant nothing, as for some bizzare reason they were allowed to congregate, hold meetings, plan attack, carry out the attacks in Nigeria and return home to their wives.
All this happening within striking range of MQ-9 Reaper drones staged in Niger and Chad less than 80km away. They knew the NAF lacked the range to hit those targets.The fastest aircraft in the NAF arsenal, F-7Ni able to fly at twice the speed of sound is notoriously short legged
The vastness of the Sambisa and other forest proved to be a double edged sword. The vast featureless terrain and someitmes thick jungle canopies offered concealment and gaves insurgents enough room to manoveur. Someitmes they even attacked troops head-on.
After getting into a conventional battle with the army insurgents learned to stick to the tactics they know best : hit and runs, ambushes and surprise attacks. The vast topography gave insurgents the ability to blend into their surroundings and conceal operations.
One advantage the Nigerian army has is in terms of firepower from air support and artillery. Insurgents tried to negate this advantage on the battlefield by hitting Nigerian infantry units when it is most advantageous to them.
The Nigerian army Mechanized Infantry is finnally living up to its name. More IFV's en-route. Nigeria's quest to repair two decades of neglect is firing on all cylinders.
No less than three foreign militaries are covertly understudying the Nigerian military’s exploits in COIN operations. The United States, a traditional admirer of the Nigerian military as far as land operations is concerned, Britain and Belarus.
They are paying particular attention to how the Nigerian military cut Boko Haram’s supply line and isolated the insurgents. Admirers of the tactics are said to have described such as unbelievable even by the standards of those that have been much longer involved in COIN warfare
The Horn of Africa is arguably the most complex and conflicted region in Africa. Its one of the few places in the world where inter-state warfare is not a relic of the past.
Each of the countries of the Horn Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan suffers from protracted political strife and regional inter-state rivalries.
In 2019 Ethiopian Prime minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel peace prize. Shortly after Tigray rebels carried out attacks on several Ethiopian army camps, gambling on the fact that the Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed will be averse to going to war months after winning the Nobel prize
Nigeria's political elite areat it again. This time around the defence budget is being slashed at the most security critical period of Nigeria
since the civil war. The Chief of Army Staff declared that the reduction will affect its operational efficiency.
He specifically asked the commitee to facilitate the exclusion of the Army and other military outfits from routine annual envelope. This reduction would impede the capacity and tempo of the Nigerian Army in carrying out its constitutional duties, particularly the war against
terrorists and other criminalities across the country. He is making a passionately appeal to this committee to begin the release of year 2022 capital budget in the first. This would help the Nigerian Army to rehabilitate dilapidated training facilities across NA formations