₦airaland Forum

There are indications that Nigeria has brought in hundreds of mercenaries from Eastern Europe to strengthen its war against militant Islamic group, Boko Haram.

The Eastern European mercenaries have joined their South-African counterparts and Nigerian soldiers fighting the insurgents.

According to Reuters, rumours about the use of foreign mercenaries against the Islamist militant group gained substance this month when pictures surfaced on Twitter showing Armoured Personnel Carriers vehicles on a street in Maiduguri, Borno State.

In the picture, which appeared on Twitter on March 6, a white man in a khaki, a tee-shirt and body armour, was standing beside a heavy-calibre machine gun on top of one of the sand-coloured APCs as the column drove through the streets at dusk.

The newswire stated that its reporter with knowledge of Maiduguri was able to verify the location of the photo as the Bama Road near the University of Maiduguri.

Security and diplomatic sources said the number of the mercenaries was much higher than the hundred or so previously reported.

When contacted by The PUNCH, the spokesman for the Defence Headquarters, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said “I don’t know anything about the claim”(the involvement of mercenaries in the fight against Boko Haram).

He added, “I just know Nigerian military and security forces are putting in all resources, training and experience acquired over the years to address security challenges.

“Our neighbours operating under the auspices of the Mutlinational Joint Task Force are also backing our efforts from all our borders with them. We also have some offers of training and intelligence from friendly countries.”

Attempts by The PUNCH to speak with the Director-General, National Orientation Agency, Mike Omeri, who coordinates the National Information Centre, on the issue proved abortive as he did not pick calls to his mobile phone.

He was also yet to reply a text message on the use of mercenaries in the North-East as of press time.

President Goodluck Jonathan had on Wednesday, said that two companies were providing “trainers and technicians” to help Nigerian forces in their efforts to end insurgency in the country.

He did not name the firms or the nationalities or give numbers.

It was gathered from a West African security source and a South African defence source that the mercenaries were linked to the bosses of a former South African private military.

The company is known for its involvement in Angola’s 1975-2002 civil war and against Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone in 1995.

It disbanded in 1998, under pressure from the post-apartheid government in Pretoria to curtail mercenary activities.

Foreign fighters paid $400 cash daily

A West African security source said the foreign fighters were being paid around $400 a day.

A South African defence contractor confirmed that South African company leaders were involved in the deployment of the mercenaries.

An Abuja-based diplomat said the South Africans were backed by soldiers and hardware from the Eastern Europe in an alliance against Boko Haram .

“It’s an incoherent mix of people, helicopters and random kit from all sorts of different sources, but there is an element of internal cohesion from the Nigerian Army,” the diplomat said.

“It appears to be a desperate ploy to get some sort of tactical success up there in six weeks for the electoral boost,” the diplomat added. The numbers of soldiers involved were in the “low hundreds; he added.

Editor of African Armed Forces magazine, John Stupart, identified the troop carriers as Reva III, manufactured by a Pretoria-based company called Integrated Convoy Protection.

After reports of South African military trainers first surfaced in the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper in January, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapise-Nqakula, made clear her displeasure, saying any deployment would be illegal under 1998 anti-mercenary laws.



http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-hires-european-mercenaries-to-fight-bharam/

Mercenaries or not,everything humanly possible should be done to bring an end to the dastardly act they perpetrate!

As long as those terrorists are wiped out, Sai GEJ

barcanista:
As long as those terrorists are wiped out, Sai GEJ

YOU HAVE SAID IT ALL, JUST WAIT AND SEE WHAT THE BOKO HARAM SYMPATHISERS WILL SAY ABOUT IT, IS LIKE THEY'RE STILL SLEEPING.....................GOODLUCK TILL 2019

The problem with the Nigerian Army is that it is loaded with too many "kabu-kabu generals" who, ordinarily, would not even qualify for a seargent in other places. Big pot belly generals too over weight, lacking the proper skills needed in modern warfare populate the Nigeria landscape. If wars are won by the number of generals a nation has, Nigeria will by now be a super power. The war against the insurgency has exposed a major weakness in our military. The fact that we have to use our hard earned resources to pay foreign mercenaries says a lot about the current state of the Army. After the civil war, the military has not engaged in serious combat operations other than peace missions. The more the military ventures into politics the farther away it is from combat ready, professional fighting force.



Mercenaries in this era of all sorts of smuggling? The attendant results from this proposition will spell doom for the Nation. Count me out supporting the move. Our Security Forces is not that derelict. Invoke war acts and pay them appropriately for the special operations. We can't subscribe to this pending invitation for trouble.

Ymodulus:
The problem with the Nigerian Army is that it is loaded with too many "kabu-kabu generals" who, ordinarily, would not even qualify for a seargent in other places. Big pot belly generals too over weight, lacking the proper skills needed in modern warfare populate the Nigeria landscape. If wars are won by the number of generals a nation has, Nigeria will by now be a super power. The war against the insurgency has exposed a major weakness in our military. The fact that we have to use our hard earned resources to pay foreign mercenaries says a lot about the current state of the Army. After the civil war, the military has not engaged in serious combat operations other than peace missions. The more the military ventures into politics the farther away it is from combat ready, professional fighting force.



Mercenaries in this era of all sorts of smuggling? The attendant results from this proposition will spell doom for the Nation. Count me out supporting the move. Our Security Forces is not that derelict. Invoke war acts and pay them appropriately for the special operations. We can't subscribe to this pending invitation for trouble.

fine it exposed our weakness,on what bases did you rate our Generals.

Anything to restore peace

barcanista:
As long as those terrorists are wiped out, Sai GEJ

have u decamped?

touch not! private property here.

driand:
have u decamped?

Yes Sir!

barcanista:
Yes Sir!

any good reason?

barcanista:
As long as those terrorists are wiped out, Sai GEJ

When a government abnegates the trust invested in it, to outsource the security of its citizens to foreign mercenaries, it is no longer fit for purpose. You may not see this but others do.

Mercenaries Join Nigeria’s Military Campaign Against Boko Haram
...
... ...

“They are subcontracting the national polity,” said a leading Nigeria scholar, Paul Lubeck of Johns Hopkins University. “It’s the destitution of Nigerian nationalism.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/africa/nigerias-fight-against-boko-haram-gets-help-from-south-african-mercenaries.html?_r=0

driand:
any good reason?

I wish not to go indepth Sir!

TheOtherview:
When a government abnegates the trust invested in it, to outsource the security of its citizens to foreign mercenaries, it is no longer fit for purpose. You may not see this but others do.



Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/africa/nigerias-fight-against-boko-haram-gets-help-from-south-african-mercenaries.html?_r=0

The most important is that the terrorists are wiped out

barcanista:
The most important is that the terrorists are wiped out

You mean the same way contracted mercenaries wiped out terrorists in Iraq?
Continue spinning yarns of delusion.

barcanista:
Yes Sir!

Congrats ,all our past arguements finally paid off , lol !

Don't worry about aresa, I will take up his case when the right time comes and as for other hypocr!tes hiding behind several monikers like him, the truth shall set them free when they choose to!!

Remain blessed!!!

@topic:

We thank the FG for doing everything possible to eliminate bh, APC and their band of corrupt politicians shall bow to gej come March 28,2015.


Kill them all before ISIS makes another hypocr!te YouTube speech!!!!

TheOtherview:
You mean the same way contracted mercenaries wiped out terrorists in Iraq?
Continue spinning yarns of delusion.

Nigeria is not Iraq. The most important is to defeat boko bastards

APCshit fans would come in and make negative statements as usual.
Boko haram would have been a thing of the past, had the northerners supported the government fully.
But instead they accused Ihejirika of committing genocide, when he was on the verge of wiping Bokoharam out.

mrborntodoit:
Congrats ,all our past arguements finally paid off , lol !

Don't worry about aresa, I will take up his case when the right time comes and as for other hypocr!tes hiding behind several monikers like him, the truth shall set them free when they choose to!!

Remain blessed!!!

@topic:

We thank the FG for doing everything possible to eliminate bh, APC and their band of corrupt politicians shall bow to gej come March 28,2015.


Kill them all before ISIS makes another hypocr!te YouTube speech!!!!

Aresa may be contemplating joining the umbrella.
The most important thing is to support the project that will move Nigeria forward

barcanista:
I wish not to go indepth Sir!

I've neva been so disappointed in anyone sir, but with all due respect I've lost everything thing I had for u, but we still need u on our side, dey say every man has his prize, don't tell me u could be so cheap,.... Stay d cause bro, it's not just about me and u, its not just about d insurgency, how about d corruption? D negligence of d rule of law, how about the future of the unborn? Bro stay d cause! We are in did together until victory is achieved. STAY THE CAUSE BROTHER!

barcanista:
Aresa may be contemplating joining the umbrella.
The most important thing is to support the project that will move Nigeria forward

Exactly, that is the KOKO . Aresa appears to enjoy manipulating everyone he argues with but then I guess with time, he will see the light .

driand:
I've neva been so disappointed in anyone sir, but with all due respect I've lost everything thing I had for u, but we still need u on our side, dey say every man has his prize, don't tell me u could be so cheap,.... Stay d cause bro, it's not just about me and u, its not just about d insurgency, how about d corruption? D negligence of d rule of law, how about the future of the unborn? Bro stay d cause! We are in did together until victory is achieved. STAY THE CAUSE BROTHER!

My partisanship may change but my patriotic cause has never and will never change. The emboldened are irrelevant

barcanista:
My partisanship may change but my patriotic cause has never and will never change. The emboldened are irrelevant

you must have seen something good in d man , I'd like to know what it us , probably he may get my support as well

Ymodulus:
The problem with the Nigerian Army is that it is loaded with too many "kabu-kabu generals" who, ordinarily, would not even qualify for a seargent in other places. Big pot belly generals too over weight, lacking the proper skills needed in modern warfare populate the Nigeria landscape. If wars are won by the number of generals a nation has, Nigeria will by now be a super power. The war against the insurgency has exposed a major weakness in our military. The fact that we have to use our hard earned resources to pay foreign mercenaries says a lot about the current state of the Army. After the civil war, the military has not engaged in serious combat operations other than peace missions. The more the military ventures into politics the farther away it is from combat ready, professional fighting force.


Mercenaries in this era of all sorts of smuggling? The attendant results from this proposition will spell doom for the Nation. Count me out supporting the move. Our Security Forces is not that derelict. Invoke war acts and pay them appropriately for the special operations. We can't subscribe to this pending invitation for trouble.

You are 100% correct!

driand:
you must have seen something good in d man , I'd like to know what it us , probably he may get my support as well

Just keep an open mind and do a thorough reflection between the APC/Buhari and PDP/GEJ

barcanista:
Just keep an open mind and do a thorough reflection between the APC/Buhari and PDP/GEJ

nonsense I knew u neva had anything to, later u'll come back and hide ur face in shame, if u don't have anything tangible to tell me den u were simply bought with money , did was not d guy I admired so much.

I thought they denied initially. Well we are an import driven economy. We import almost everything even women and drinking water, so it is not strange to import armies from other nations. I just hope we would be allowed to import a President from the US or China. The one we presently have has expired.

Nigerdeltaboi:
fine it exposed our weakness,on what bases did you rate our Generals.

On the premise of not making and taking the right decision. On the basis/premise of not confronting the insurgents when they were merely nuisance and lacked technical fire-power and war strategies

Nigerdeltaboi:
fine it exposed our weakness,on what bases did you rate our Generals.

Nothing exposed any weakness. Mercenaries aren't new in modern conflicts.

The united states department of defence, state department and the U.K ministry of justice depend heavily on mecenaries. Xe, nepalese ghukas, blackwater, ascan group are some of the many mercenaries used by both the Americans and british.


We in Nigeria have are also no strangers to private security companies. The role of mercenaries in this current conflict is to advice and provide training/maintenance on some of the new equipments purchased.

Our pilots have clocked over 3,500 operational missions in the last 6 months. On the Alpha jet since 1990, Nigerian pilots have clocked over 5,000 combat missions on that platform and have bled/died in these missions . Nigerian pilots changed the overall operational spectrum on that single bird.


So, the claim that foreigners are flying our planes is utterly baseless, and treasonable.

Let those people making these claims provide evidence, not some "an oyinbo diplomat said this or that."

Boss13:
I thought they denied initially. Well we are an import driven economy. We import almost everything even women and drinking water, so it is not strange to import armies from other nations. I just hope we would be allowed to import a President from the US or China. The one we presently have has expired.

Can you provide evidence to support this claim?

Henry120:
Can you provide evidence to support this claim?

http://dailytimes.com.ng/boko-haram-mercenaries-killed-in-error/

You happy now?