American soldiers in Maiduguri
Last weekend, we were inundated with the news of the American soldiers who arrived in Maiduguri to help our soldiers fight the Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast. More of the groups’ troops were said to have encamped in the North West and North Central to help deal with the menace of bandits rampaging there. […]
Last weekend, we were inundated with the news of the American soldiers who arrived in Maiduguri to help our soldiers fight the Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast. More of the groups’ troops were said to have encamped in the North West and North Central to help deal with the menace of bandits rampaging there. In a video going the rounds in the media space, I learnt that, as a prelude, six cargo planes were said to have earlier left US soil for Nigeria.
The planes stopped over in Accra to refuel and then headed straight to Nigeria. The biggest of the planes, a C130-J Super Hercules, landed in Maiduguri. The other planes landed in Kainji and other parts of the north. Subsequently, more flights came into Maiduguri, offloading sensitive equipment and logistic gear along with one hundred, or so, troops, said to be intelligence analysts, drone specialists and tactical advisers.
The American soldiers who landed at Maiduguri Airport last week were only following a beaten track. Their forebears have been there before in 1942, or thereabout, travelling, I guess, in an earlier version of the military plane, and most likely donning the same military fatigues. That was the period, readers might recall, when the world was at war. Nigeria was still a British colony, and the Allies of WW II, comprising principally the UK and the USA, identified Pompomari Airport, as it was then called, in Maiduguri, as strategically important for airlifting men and material to the Allied Forces fighting in East and North Africa.
It was a small airport and needed to be expanded to accommodate more aircraft and men. To achieve that, an entire, vibrant village close to the airport, Maisandari Liberty, was uprooted and demolished, and its inhabitants were sent packing into Maiduguri. In those early days, Maisandari Liberty village was essentially a camp established by the British for formerly enslaved people, which, as it grew, became a reservoir of messengers, houseboys, and general-purpose labourers for the European areas. The Allied Forces eventually won the war in 1945, with, I say, some help from the Pompomari Airport in Maiduguri.
However, the American troops are returning to the same airport after so many years of absence, this time, under different circumstances. In this instance, the Americans will not engage in direct confrontation with the enemy but will only provide the necessary support to our troops. The fighting environment would also be vastly different. They will be engaged in fighting vicious insurgents who have embedded themselves for over 15 years within the vast plains of Borno and its surroundings, causing mayhem all over.
A substantial portion of northern Borno is uninhabited, with its traumatised population in IDP camps in Maiduguri and other gated settlements. My mother’s birthplace, Magumeri, some 50 kilometres north of Maiduguri, a bustling market town in the pre-Boko Haram days, now lies forlorn and bereft of hardly a human activity. You can’t travel safely up north from Maiduguri unless you join a caravan of vehicles led and protected by soldiers. Many of us who have suffered from this sustained conflict have almost lost hope that there will ever be light at the end of the tunnel.
At a time during the brutal insurgency, when it seemed our gallant troops, who had seen success elsewhere in African peacekeeping efforts, were being overwhelmed, many of us had even suggested to the government of the day that it contemplate engaging private military contractors that had achieved some success in other parts of Africa to come and help clear the insurgents. I understand that had President Goodluck Jonathan remained beyond 2015, that idea would have materialised.
For the American soldiers, I venture to say that their job is cut out for them, going by events last week that unfolded in parts of Borno. Last week, on Wednesday, the ISWAP group, that has made the Lake Chad area its base, let off one of its deadliest attacks on a military base in Cross Kauwa village. They were reported to have killed a number of soldiers and caused injuries to others. They also burnt down the base along with some gun trucks and made away with the anti-aircraft guns mounted on them. Cross Kauwa is a strategic settlement, almost equidistant from the flourishing town of Baga, famous for its fish trade, and Kukawa, the ancient capital of Borno, and serves both as a major security bulwark.
The Jihadists also attacked two other bases in Borno last week, leaving in their wake similar kinds of devastation. The attack targeted military bases in Mandaragrau, a few kilometres from Biu, close to the Sambisa Forest and Pulka, the hometown of Mohammed Ali Ndume, the Senator representing Borno South District.
The coordinated attacks were a clear poke in the eye to the American troops who have come to help. However, from my perspective, the coming of the American soldiers is a welcome development, if one can stomach the US President’s divisive put-down of our government. I pray that our troops will be humble enough to learn all they can from the Americans and utilise all the equipment and intelligence they will provide to help wipe out the insurgents from our soil.