The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), on Friday said the coordinated onslaught against Lakurawa terrorists in Sokoto State by air and land components of operation Fansan Yamma were not responsible for the alleged civilian casualties.
The military said civilian casualties resulted from a secondary explosion, contrary to the erroneous media report that military airstrikes hit wrong location and killed no fewer than 10 armless and innocent citizens in a village in Sokoto state.
Also on Friday, the Nigerian military allayed fears of citizens over the acquisition of drones by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (BH/ISWAP) terrorists to attack troops’ locations.
On December 25, a coordinated joint operation was conducted between the air and land components of Operation Fansan Yamma to destroy Lakurawa terrorist groups in their hideouts at Gidan Bissah and Gidan Rotuwa in Jilukon Forest, in Sokoto State killing no fewer than 10 villagers.
Refuting the alleged killing of civilians during airstrikes in North-west operational theatre, the Director Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba, revealed that locals confirmed that the Lakurawa terrorists stayed in the village and used the area for the conduct of their operations.
Buba stated that intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance as well as human intelligence reports prior to the operation consistently indicated the hideout was a high concentration terrorist location.
According to him, “The air strikes at the end of the day had minor impact on the surrounding villages.
“The air strikes indeed hit logistic base of the terrorist which led to secondary explosions and it was these secondary explosions that led to some casualties that was earlier reported.
“The neutralised lakurawa terrorist combatants were burnt indeed beyond recognition because they were hit directly by the strikes”.
Buba noted that the terrorists are known to blend within the local populace.
“We knew about this and it is for this reason that we painstakingly made sure that we minimise civilian casualty in this strike and because the terrorists blend among the civil populace, it is often difficult to differentiate friend from foe.
“In summarising, I would say that troops target terrorists and not innocent citizens. Having said that, we must also remember that war is ugly and horrible in every sense. War is never beautiful and it is the worst human endeavor ever,” he stressed.
This, he said was the reason the military often explain what troops were doing in the field knowing that by so doing they have a better chance to deny the enemy to manipulate things and use it for their purposes or to their advantage.
Buba said every innocent soul lost in the course of their operation was a tragedy and they do sympathise with their loved ones and their families whenever such occurs.
“But we must be reminded that our troops are very professional in their actions and are indeed turning the tide against the insurgents and terrorists.
‘We encourage citizens and say that together we make an extraordinary difference even as ordinary people. We call on your support always and we want to thank the people in that community that tremendously helped our operation to be this successful.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without their cooperation and the intel that they provided us. Thank you very much. The Armed Forces have to protect our citizens and it is for these reasons that we carry out our operations to make sure that citizens are protected and our territory and our territorial integrity is also secured.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian military on Friday allayed fear of citizens over the acquisition of drones by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (BH/ISWAP) terrorists to attack troops locations.
The military said there was no cause for alarm as the drones used by the terrorists are not military-graded unmanned aerial vehicles.
Buba, said this while fielding questions from journalists during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday.
Buba said the drones used by terrorists were “toys” to harass civilians.
“The report about the usage of drones. I don’t think that there’s need for any unnecessary panic about the usage of drones.
“We are in war against terrorists and against insurgents across our country and all you need to know is not far from what you see happening in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Hamas and all that. The use of drones in the battlefield is not new.
“Now when we are talking of drones, we don’t want unnecessary panic because these are not professional drones, not military-grade drones.
“These are toys that they went to buy and found a way to put one or two things on board and use them. How effective were they? They were not effective. Are we doing something about it? Yes, we are.
“Since we now know that this is where their thinking and their thoughts are going, we have to take measures to control such attacks. I don’t call them really attacks, I call them harassments,” he said.
Buba further clarified that there was no foreign military base in Nigeria, adding that Nigeria has refused to be a ground for any proxy war.
According to him, “We don’t have any foreign military base. We said this more than one time, we do not have any foreign military base in Nigeria. “Anyone who is saying that is trying to be mischievous… trying to be misleading and definitely he has an agenda.
“There is no foreign military base in Nigeria to be a ground for proxy war. We don’t want our country to be a ground for proxy war. You accept one person, the enemy of that person will start to woo you. That is a proxy war. We don’t want that.
“So anywhere you hear anybody talking like that, I think they are doing that as a distraction.”
Linus Aleke
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