Boko Haram using drones to monitor troops’ operations

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has raised the alarm that Boko Haram insurgents have higher expertise and better technological weapons than the military. He said this yesterday in Maiduguri while welcoming the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and his entourage who were in Borno to assess the situation of the IDPs in terms of their population and their transition from camp to resettlement.

The governor said the insurgents were now using drones to monitor military operations. This, according to him, shows that the sect possesses higher technological warfare and expertise than the government’s joint military task force.

According to him, “The capacity of the military has to be re-examined in terms of technological warfare. Otherwise this thing (insurgency war) will never end.” “Boko Haram now uses drones to monitor the operations of the military. Without providing proper and up-to-date technological capacity to the military, this thing will never end,” he cautioned.

He urged the Federal Government to increase the “numeral strength” of the security and paramilitary personnel fighting the insurgency war as well as support the civilian JTF to meet the emerging challenges posed by “higher expertise on the part of Boko Haram.”

“Sustained military operations in the Chad Basin cannot be overemphasized in the face of the scaled-up operations of ISWAP in the region”, he said, noting that Borno shared borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Zulum said although all local government areas in the state had been liberated from Boko Haram, “only 10 villages now stand out of the about 500 that used to exist in Northern Borno, only about 20 now stand out of the about 1000 villages that used to exist in Central Borno before 2015.”

Responding, Gbajabiamila said the insurgency continued for “a bit too long and we have to put it behind us.” Gbajabiamila said the federal legislature had now resolved to collaborate with the executive on the Boko Haram war because “it is not yet Uhuru; we are not there yet and the government can’t do it alone.”