President Muhammadu Buhari |
President Muhammadu Buhari has acknowledged setbacks in the fight
against Boko Haram, as the jihadists launched fresh attacks in the
restive northeast.
The 76-year-old head of state was elected in 2015 on a promise to end
the Islamist insurgency, which has killed more than 27,000 people since
2009 and left 1.8 million homeless.
But as he seeks a second term in elections next month, a wave of
attacks, including against military bases, has undermined his repeated
claim that the group is virtually defeated.
Soldiers have also complained that Boko Haram fighters are better
armed and that morale is low, particularly because of a lack of rotation
and support.
In a recorded interview broadcast late on Monday on Arise TV, Buhari
conceded that troops had come under pressure from the Islamists’
guerrilla warfare.
Buhari, a former army general who became military ruler after ousting
the elected government in a coup in 1983, said the “question of morale
is correct”.
Efforts were being made to address the issue, he said.
Relentless hit-and-run raids, as well as suicide bomb attacks, were hard to deal with by conventional means, he argued.
“There is really what I would call battle fatigue,” he said, adding that retraining would help combat the jihadists’ tactics.
On Monday evening, fighters loyal to factional leader Abubakar Shekau
attacked Sajeri village on the outskirts of the Borno state capital,
Maiduguri, killing three people.
At the same time, militants aligned to the Islamic State group-backed
Boko Haram faction attacked a military facility in Auno, some 23
kilometres (15 miles) south of the city.
The increase in attacks has seen the appointment of five different
commanders of the military operation against Boko Haram in the last two
years.
But Buhari has refused to sack his military top brass, unlike his
predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, who removed senior officers as the
jihadists began taking over territory.
“I accept responsibility for that,” Buhari said in the interview, adding that he was “measuring the options very critically”.
But he said that such appointments were not to be taken lightly.
“My understanding of security is that when you have a case of
emergency you have to be careful with the head of (the armed) services,”
he said.
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