Swegzfreak:
. Nope!!! Dats just 2 small, let me pay #25,000, 000

if u can!

Nigeria has every natural resources there is - too numerous to mention, and so do most African countries that are also interestingly also ravaged by war and insurgency. But even if Nigeria had no natural resources, the objective with Nigeria is mainly to weaken it so that there are no African super power to defend the continent the way Nigeria did under Abacha. The reconquest began with the assassination of Abacha.

Regarding America's prediction of Nigeria's break up, this is well documented. The prediction was made in 1997 by a think tank that is linked to American government.

JuanDeDios:

What natural resources? I mean, any specific examples? Do you have any link to any document where America predicted Nigeria's breakup 20 years ago or at any other time?

This makes me remember the expendables .Love them or hate them, what i like about the whites is their honesty, discipline and determination to get the job done no matter what. Just look at the VICE news documentary called Africa's Cowboy Capitalists, look at how the american trucker that was ferried in from the U.S got the job done and delivered the truck from south africa to south sudan, while the black trucker that was initially hired keeps on demanding more money while stealing fuel from the truck. The american trucker kept his determination and patience in the face of great african adversity. From endless beaurocratic red tape, to endless official corruption, to insurgency, he pressed on with the job at hand. Its very inspirational to see how things can be so simple and direct if we want it to be, yet we ourselves over complicate things for ourselves. We sat there for years over fearing boko haram, while all we could have done is simply outgun and outsmart them. Now a few hundred south african mercineries have done the job for us. Well kudos to everybody involved

sacora:
if u can!

.
Call or message me asap 08144997540

cronsberg:
This makes me remember the expendables .Love them or hate them, what i like about the whites is their honesty, discipline and determination to get the job done no matter what. Just look at the VICE news documentary called Africa's Cowboy Capitalists, look at how the american trucker that was ferried in from the U.S got the job done and delivered the truck from south africa to south sudan, while the black trucker that was initially hired keeps on demanding more money while stealing fuel from the truck. The american trucker kept his determination and patience in the face of great african adversity. From endless beaurocratic red tape, to endless official corruption, to insurgency, he pressed on with the job at hand. Its very inspirational to see how things can be so simple and direct if we want it to be, yet we ourselves over complicate things for ourselves. We sat there for years over fearing boko haram, while all we could have done is simply outgun and outsmart them. Now a few hundred south african mercineries have done the job for us. Well kudos to everybody involved

You should ve asked the SA national defence force, they could have finished the job in 1 week. now you opted for more secrecy deal, which will put these thugs in jail.

You did not obviously witness Nigeria playing the role of regional superpower under Gen Sani Abacha

MzansiBeat:
DEFEND THE CONTINENT MY FOOT! WHEN HAS NIGERIA SUDDENLY BECAME AFRICA

BUTCHCASSIDY:
Hahahaha
I Knew it was too good to be true. This war was won by the Chadians and the fvcking , mercenaries.
If the Nigerian armed forces were spearheading this Im sure the entire country would have been overrun by now
Nigerian army only good for manning checkpoints, doing bodyguard for ogas while their fat stvpid generals are busy
Drinking gulder and peppersoup while chasing girls

How unfortunate! You have no respect for your armed forces, the men and women who are ready to die for their country, your country's last line of defence. For your information, every nation has it's own challenges and a few bad potatoes, here and there. However, that should not serve as justification for you to insult and despise an entire army which has a good reputation world-wide. Please find a library and read a little a bit about the Nigerian army. Do you even know that there were battles in which some of your soldiers fought against BH until they ran out of ammunition? You need to apologise to all Africans for what you've said.

Miaraka:

How unfortunate! You have no respect for your armed forces, the men and women who are ready to die for their country, your country's last line of defence. For your information, every nation has it's own challenges and a few bad potatoes, here and there. However, that should not serve as justification for you to insult and despise an entire army which has a good reputation world-wide. Please find a library and read a little a bit about the Nigerian army. Do you even know that there were battles in which some of your soldiers fought against BH until they ran out of ammunition? You need to apologise to all Africans for what you've said.

Apologise for speaking the truth?
no way sir
The bad potatoes you talk about are not few they are in the majority
To the gallant ones dead or alive they have nuthing but my respect
fvck the rest

texazzpete:


LOL
Not only am I a Nigerian, but I'm Far more patriotic than the likes of you - sycophants that undermine their own country by burying their heads in the sand.

Don't be a lazy wastepipe. Take my post point for point and make an intelligent response if you dare.
I will not abide the cowardly practice of hiding your empty rhetoric behind generic insults.

I have no time for this..

sadly that I've replied a Nigerian which a severe inferiority complex...

nothing can save you my dear... don't bother to reply.
bye.

there is something i hate about most nigerians it is their inability to think beyond their noses and do the research needed to authenticate or debunk a story
the simple fact is that
NA bought REVA III APC for the formation of a new capable Special Forces unit built on the doctrine of mobility and relentless pursuit of a target enemy giving the enemy no room to counter attack.
this group was created to mobile in everything at all times
that group is the the 72 mobileStrikeforce(MSF)
this group,was trained and mentored by EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES. a south african military company owned by Eeben Barlow
an astute South African with a Pan African ideology..
there was i repeat there was no engagement of the enemy by Foreigners. or mercs as you wish to call them
all foreigners seens in this war were clearly here for two purposes\
TRAIN and TRAIN
both on tactics(new) and new acquired Hardware (CSV3 bigfoot Mrap,REVA APC,INKAS LAV etc)
there was no formation built around foreigners in this war giving them the structure to engage..

Eeben Barlow fortunately is an astute Beegeagle blogger thou not consistent pops up from time to time to Give updates on events regarding this new form of propaganda from screwed media sources and encourage us to believe in the NIGERIAN MILITARY AND PROJECT
below are excepts of his comments made on may 14

Reply
Eeben says:
May 14, 2015 at 3:54 am

A long time ago, I wrote that Nigeria was a prize. This prize is not only targeted by armed force but also by propaganda, disinformation, sanctions, coercive diplomacy and so forth.
You only need to look at who writes what to determine the agenda and what part they are playing in the attack on your country.
The NA men we were honoured to work with are good men who have a deep desire to end the conflict. What they did, they did with dedication and will. However, their role was a small part in a larger NA effort.
Do not be misled as the efforts of the NA/NAF were what turned the conflict around.
Insofar as STTEP is concerned, I only gave ONE interview and that was with SOREP. All other media reports were lifted off SOFREP and the journos then used their imagination and were at pains to expose their agendas all the while intimating they interviewed me, which they didn’t.
I say again, only Africans can solve Africa’s problems.
Reply

Eeben says:
May 14, 2015 at 4:00 am

Correction:
Insofar as STTEP is concerned, I only gave ONE interview and that was with SOREP. All other media reports were lifted off SOFREP and the journos then used their imagination to fill in whatever they wanted and were at pains to expose their agendas all the while intimating they interviewed me, which they didn’t. Some have even tried to create the impression that they attended my talks at the Royal Danish Defence College and that I discussed STTEP in Nigeria. They didn’t attend my talks and I certainly did not divulge the NA’s campaign strategy, operational design or tactics.
All the negativity that is written is aimed at creating a poor perception of Nigeria and thereby hoping to erode the will of the populace.
We all know that Nigeria has problems, as does South Africa. But show me a country that can claim they have no problems…even those whose media viciously attacks you have major problems. They just don’t want anyone to know…
I say again, only Africans can solve Africa’s problems.
Reply

from the comments above and others he had made previously he has stressed that he only gave a single interview(1) to sofrep.com
throughout that interview and his previous comments he had always maintained the fact that ONLY NIGERIAN TROOPS have been bearing the brunt of this offensive against BH while our neighbours attempt to skew the narrative to suit their agendas.....

he has always maintained that NA is the only fighting force doing the job on the ground with our neighbours maintaining our flanks on the borders..

this interveiw by sofrep has been altered so many times by different journalists with agendas to suit their narrative and dumped on the hapless public for us to consume and form a pre-programmed conclusion most notablely Yahoonews,new york times etc

gentlemen the agendas in this conflict are numerous and complex and extend beyond our shores...
here is a link to the original link to the only interview granted by barlow on the workings of EO and i repeat it is the only authentic interview by EO and STTEP.others by other agencies have been skewed to suit their pay masters narrative

i weep when we allow our stupid political affiliations becloud our sense of reason and nationalism..if things could be this bad now how much when we are engage in a conventional conflict..
http://sofrep.com/40608/eeben-barlow-south-african-pmc-devestates-boko-haram-pt1/

eports have emerged from Nigeria that South African military contractors are on the ground helping the Nigerian military deal some devastating blows to the terrorist organization known as Boko Haram. “The campaign gathered good momentum and wrested much of the initiative from the enemy,” says Eeben Barlow, the chairman of STTEP, a private military company (PMC) on the ground in Nigeria. Their presence has spurred a predictable and all-too-familiar cacophony from hand-wringing policy wonks, politicians, and media pundits lambasting the use of ‘apartheid’-era mercenaries in Nigeria’s bloody war against Islamic extremists.
Related Posts

Eeben Barlow Speaks Out (Pt. 2): Development of a Nigerian Strike Force
Eeben Barlow Speaks Out (Pt. 4): Rejecting the Racial Narrative
Eeben Barlow Speaks Out (Pt. 3): Tactics Used to Destroy Boko Haram
Eeben Barlow Speaks Out (Pt. 6): South African Contractors Withdrawal from Nigeria
South African Contractors Take the Fight to Boko Haram

Boko Haram, the so-called Nigerian Taliban, believes in the imposition of Sharia law and the rejection of Western culture. Their methods are brutal: employing assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, and massacres against civilian populations. Led by Abubakar Shekau, the terrorist organization has murdered thousands of civilians. The Nigerian Army has been at war with the group since 2009.

With a Nigerian strike force trained by STTEP, Boko Haram seems to have finally met their match. “The enemy tried to engage the strike force on several occasions but suffered the consequences of their actions,” Barlow told SOFREP. “It was not uncommon for the strike force to be met by thousands of cheering locals once the enemy had been driven from an area.”

Amid the cries of racist, out-of-control mercenaries running around Nigeria, one thing can be certain. Whoever these private military contractors are, they are very effective at what they do. Clearly, Nigeria isn’t their first rodeo. In an exclusive SOFREP interview, Barlow takes us inside how STTEP initially got involved in the conflict, their tactics, their team members, and exactly what he thinks about those who would call him ‘mercenary’ or ‘racist’ simply because his men effectively kill those who rape, murder, and maim innocent civilians.

Barlow is well known for founding Executive Outcomes, a private military company that chalked up amazing successes in Angola and Sierra Leone against anti-government forces during the 1990s, much to the chagrin of the United Nations, who failed to do the same with multi-billion dollar peacekeeping forces. It came at a price for the men of Executive Outcomes; at times, they were made victims of their own success, as certain governments did not appreciate a commercial enterprise interfering with their foreign policy, even if they were working on behalf of democratically elected governments to bring about stability and conflict resolution.

With Executive Outcomes closing in 2000, and the UN proving itself ineffective, African nations were left without a solution when facing butchers like Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) or more recently, Boko Haram in Nigeria.

In 2006, three South African Defense Force veterans founded STTEP (Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection) to help fill the vacuum left by the departure of Executive Outcomes. The founders of the company then began approaching African governments, albeit in a discreet manner. STTEP refuses to name any clients they may have worked for, other than to say that they work exclusively in Africa. “We work under the radar as far as possible,” Barlow says, “and will never compromise a government or a client.”

Eeben Barlow was approached in 2009 to become the chairman of STTEP and help guide the company. STTEP initially focused on training African military forces, as the training they had received from outsiders (the U.S. or UN, for instance) left much to be desired. The foreigners failed in their foreign internal defense missions due to “poor training, bad advice, a lack of strategy, vastly different tribal affiliations, ethnicity, religion, languages, cultures, not understanding the conflict and enemy,” Barlow told SOFREP. “Much of this training is focused on window-dressing, but when you look through the window, the room is empty.”

In coming installments of this series, Barlow discusses the tactics employed by STTEP and the Nigerian strike force they trained to fight Boko Haram, how STTEP’s contract with the Nigerian Army came about, and the big picture when it comes to African conflicts and how they relate back to the Libyan Civil War and ISIS. Barlow also points out the extreme hypocrisy of those who label him and his employees ‘racist mercenaries.’

Read more: http://sofrep.com/40608/eeben-barlow-south-african-pmc-devestates-boko-haram-pt1/#ixzz3a97yKII9

Over the past several months, South African private military contractors have been training a Nigerian strike force and have integrated them into their unit during combat operations against Boko Haram.

STTEP, a private military company (PMC) on the ground in Nigeria, was asked for assistance and was subcontracted to the Nigerian government by a primary contractor after they’d heard good things about the company’s reputation. Arrangements like this are fraught with difficulties, as disagreements can and do arise between the primary contractors, the subcontractor, and the host nation. This relationship has proven fruitful thus far, however; recent battlefield successes speak for themselves.

The chairman of STTEP, Eeben Barlow, reports, “Our relationship with the Nigerian government and the Nigerian Armed Forces is very good, and as fellow Africans, they recognize the value we have added thus far at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.”

In mid-December of 2014, STTEP was contracted to deploy to Nigeria. Their mission was to train a mobile strike force to rescue the Chibok school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. When the terrorists abducted over 250 schoolgirls, it drew international media attention and put the ‘Nigerian Taliban’ on the map. Michelle Obama responded to the kidnapping with a perfectly ineffective social-media campaign driven by the Twitter hashtag #bringbackourgirls.

An advanced party of South African military veterans working for STTEP landed in Nigeria by early January of 2015. Instead of social-media activism, they held a selection program for the elite Nigerian military unit they were to train while the main body of STTEP began to arrive. “It is a mobile strike force with its own organic air support, intelligence, communications, logistics, and other relevant combat support elements,” said Barlow. He declined to name the unit they were training, but an open source investigation strongly suggests this unit is the 72 Strike Force.
Strike force members undergoing urban warfare training-1

Strike Force members conducting urban warfare training

By the time the main body of STTEP contractors arrived, the selection process for the Nigerian strike force was complete and training was able to commence immediately. “We built it from scratch,” Barlow explained, “and were able to, in a very short space of time, get it combat ready. The results this force achieved, along with the support of the Nigerian Army, are indeed remarkable.”

STTEP trained the Nigerian strike force in mounted and dismounted tactics with an emphasis on operational flexibility, which was tailored toward the unit’s specific mission. “I think we sometimes gave them [Nigerian military] gray hairs, as we were forever begging for equipment, ammunition, and so forth,” Barlow said as they conducted training in a remote area. “But, the credit in this instance goes to the chief instructor and his men, who implemented the training.”

The South Africans trained their Nigerian counterparts in the tactics, techniques, and procedures that they had practiced and refined on the battlefield since South Africa’s conflicts in the 1980s, including Barlow’s concept of relentless pursuit (which will be explored in a future article).

Meanwhile, Boko Haram was experiencing an increase in operational tempo and achieving successes in their area of operations. The militants captured Gwoza and established a base there in August, followed by the border town of Malam Fatori in November and Baga in January near Lake Chad. By early January of 2015, Boko Haram was estimated to have control over 20,000 square miles of territory.

With this in mind, STTEP’s mission quickly transitioned from training a rescue unit to training a rapidly deploying mobile strike force, and mentoring those they trained in the field. “By late February, the strike force conducted its first highly successful operational deployment,” Barlow said.

The prevailing sentiment about groups like ISIS and Boko Haram is that they are Islamic fanatics—end of story. But this explanation may be intellectually lazy. Nigeria faces a stark north-south divide. While southern Nigeria received a large amount of foreign direct investment (FDI), the north did not—resulting in a substantive economic disparity within the country. “Whereas FDI is positively related to the oil sector, it is negatively related to agriculture and manufacturing,” concludes Adegbemi Babatunde Onakoya of Tai Solarin University of Education in Nigeria. The map below shows where Nigeria’s oil fields are in the south, while their agrarian base is in the north.
Nigerian Oil Fields and Agrarian Base

Nigerian Oil Fields and Agrarian Base

Driven by poverty and the quest for power, “Boko Haram are a bunch of armed thugs who have used religion as the glue to hold their followers together, and who use murder, kidnapping, and terror to force cooperation from the local population,” Barlow said. “Boko Haram feeds off terror generated by kidnappings, murder, rape, infrastructure destruction, IEDs, and so forth. They are very effective when it comes to attacking innocent civilians. Murder, rape, and beheadings are common tactics they use to instill fear and force cooperation.”

The next installment explains Barlow’s approach to tactics. While the enemy employed terrorist tactics against civilians, STTEP used the concept of relentless pursuit against the terrorists.


Read more: http://sofrep.com/40623/eeben-barlow-speaks-pt-2-development-nigerian-strike-force/#ixzz3a98gXNgE

When asked about the tactics that STTEP mentors their Nigerian counterparts to use, Eeben Barlow, the company’s chairman, replied, “The strike force was never intended to hold ground. Instead, it operated on the principle of relentless offensive action.” Barlow has previously indicated that this tactic is key to waging an effective counterinsurgency.

In the doctrine Barlow advocates and made use of in Nigeria, relentless offensive action means immediately exploiting successful combat operations to keep the heat on the enemy. This strategy relies of the synchronization of every asset brought to the battlefield, and applied on multiple fronts against Boko Haram. One of those tactics includes the relentless pursuit of enemy forces.

In most recent conflicts, the enemy uses guerrilla hit-and-run techniques, striking when and where he chooses, hoping that the media will act as a force multiplier by replaying news stories about the attack over and over again. Barlow’s approach emphasizes turning the tables on the enemy by running him to ground, exhausting him, and then killing him with overwhelming firepower. Barlow’s key points to utilizing relentless pursuit include:

Troops eating while on the move
Combat tracking the enemy at a high rate of speed
Having the ability to leap-frog ahead of the enemy via helicopter
Utilizing communications
Emphasizing aggression
Maintaining proficiency in night operations
Outgunning the enemy

The tactical employment of relentless pursuit involves light infantry moving at high speed with the minimum amount of equipment needed to accomplish their task. Combat trackers follow the spore left by the enemy. “Good trackers can tell the age of a track as well as indicate if the enemy is carrying heavy loads, the types of weapons he has (this is identified when locating enemy rest points), if the enemy is moving hurriedly, what he is eating, and so forth,” Barlow points out in his explanation of this lost art.

Once the enemy’s direction is determined, troops can leap-frog forward, carried by helicopters or riding in armored vehicles the way SADF Koevoet trackers did during South Africa’s border war. Once those troops become tired, they are quickly replaced with a fresh squad. The enemy is pursued relentlessly during both day and night. Once spotted, enemy forces are engaged at the soldier’s maximum effective firing range with RPGs, machine guns, sniper rifles, or 60mm mortars.

“Troops need to develop their aggression level to such a point that the enemy fears them. Aggressive pursuit is aimed at initiating contact as heavily with the enemy as possible,” Barlow wrote on his website about relentless pursuit. “We did not develop the strategy to destroy the enemy,” Barlow elaborated. “This was done by the Nigerian Army division commander in the area of operations who gave us his intent, guidelines, and restrictions.”

STTEP then developed the tactical application for the strike force in order to support that strategy. It was then the Nigerian military’s responsibility to consolidate the terrain taken by the strike force. “Holding ground was the responsibility of the division where we operated, as was the exploitation of operational and tactical gains.”

STTEP also brought an air wing to the table with its package of trainers, advisors, and mentors. The air wing is an organic asset of the strike force and takes its orders from the strike force commander. The pilots fly a variety of missions to include CASVAC, MEDVAC, resupply runs, transporting troops, and even providing air support for the strike force. For instance, the air wing was “given ‘kill blocks’ to the front and flanks of the strike force and could conduct missions in those areas,” Barlow said. This means that the air wing dropped ordnance to create blocking positions, which would prevent the enemy from escaping the operational area that the strike force was patrolling in, essentially isolating the objective area.

As would be expected, all of this is also supported by an intelligence package. “We have our own small intelligence component that liaises with the Nigerian Army, but that has also extended its tentacles to focus on target-relevant intelligence. This ‘section’ coordinates all incoming information and intelligence and gives its intelligence product to the Nigerian Army for action,” Barlow says. A small team that focusing on targeting intelligence is the sort of task that former SADF Recce soldiers would excel at.

The hard work of the strike force and their South African partners has paid off. In late March, Boko Haram had their headquarters in Gwoza recaptured by the Nigerian military.

Read more: http://sofrep.com/40633/eeben-barlow-speaks-pt-3-tactics-used-destroy-boko-haram/#ixzz3a994MAFA

The South African contractors of STTEP trained and served alongside the Nigerian Strike Force in combat against Boko Haram starting in January of 2015, putting a significant dent in the terrorist organization and helping to pave the way for Nigerians trapped behind enemy lines to participate in democratic elections in late March. With their three-month contract expiring, STTEP made a controlled withdrawal from Nigeria and had all of their employees returned home by late March.

Once it was determined that their contract would not be extended, “It then became a matter of withdrawing our employees in groups whilst a skeleton crew remained in place to ensure all equipment was handed back to the army in a controlled and orderly manner,” STTEP’s chairman, Eeben Barlow, told SOFREP. “The Nigerian Air Force flew our men to a large city from where they departed Nigeria.”

When asked if STTEP successful fulfilled the services stipulated in their contract with the Nigerian government, Barlow answered, “As our contract was of a mere three month’s duration, I think we achieved the best we could with very limited resources.” The South African contractors were initially brought on to help the Nigerian military rescue the Chibok school girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists, but as the enemy made significant advances in northern Nigeria, STTEP had to adjust their approach at the request of the Nigerian government. They were now to train the strike force to conduct “unconventional mobile warfare,” Barlow said (these tactics are detailed in a previous article). “I can only commend the training team for achieving what they did in a very short space of time,” Barlow said.

But when it came to turning the tide against Boko Haram, Barlow made it clear that, “The credit goes to the Nigerian Army, who were supported by the strike force we trained. The strike force was a force-multiplier in the area of operations.”

The strike force plowed into enemy-held terrain while the Nigerian Army sent in infantry to secure the strike force’s rear areas and sure up any gains made. As far as the punishment that the Nigerian forces dolled out to the enemy, Barlow said, “I do know that the enemy lost many of their technicals and that they suffered heavy casualties.”

But considering the impressive performance of the South African contractors and their host-nation counterparts in the Nigerian strike force, the question becomes why their contract was not extended for a further three months. While Boko Haram has been put on the ropes, they have yet to be crushed and permanently defeated.

“Obviously we, as a sub-contractor, were not privy to the decisions made regarding the contract, and we accept whatever decision the client-government makes,” Barlow said. Had the contractors overstayed their welcome, the media reports about out-of-control mercenaries would have been accurate, but the South Africans had no interest in camping out in mega-FOBs in Nigeria or occupying their host’s country.
The impact of the Nigerian elections

One factor contributing to the contractors’ withdrawal may have been the elections themselves. “The end of our three months coincided with the elections, and as is now known, a change of government. This obviously changed the political and military landscapes. With this change in government comes a change in many things, one of course being if STTEP is required or not,” Barlow said.

Another issue may have been the pressure African governments are subjected to by the international community for employing South Africans to help resolve their security issues. “Much of this pressure originated locally from the South African print media by apparent under-control journalists publishing misinformation on the company’s activities, even to the extent of claiming we were driving main battle tanks (MTBs) into battle!” Barlow is no stranger to media smear campaigns against the companies he has worked for, as Executive Outcomes came under the same pressure for their role in the Angola and Sierra Leone conflicts in the 1990s.

International institutions and academics have no shortage of consternation when it comes to the use of certain types of private military companies. Most of these individuals were educated to believe in the Westphalian system, in which the state has the only legitimate monopoly on the use of force. Of course, there have always been huge exceptions to this rule since the current global order was established, but that doesn’t seem to deter them much. Besides that, STTEP was contracted by the government of Nigeria! How this differs so much from the myriad of American private military companies who contract in Iraq and Afghanistan is hard to fathom.

If any nation is guilty of outsourcing military tasks, it’s certainly the United States. “The current market maker for modern force is the United States, as it has turned to the private sector in unprecedented ways to support its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Sean McFate writes in his recent book “The Modern Mercenary.”

“For example, the United States has relied on contractors to develop the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, even awarding DynCorp International a contract worth up to $1 billion to train the police.” McFate also references PMCs like Lincoln Group, which came under investigation for running propaganda in the Iraqi press, and Total Intelligence Solutions, which, “runs spy rings for the U.S. government overseas.”

However, some private military companies are more equal than others. Little is said in the British press about Sterling Corporate Services or in the American press about MPRI, as the scandals have mostly focused on Blackwater contractors. Ironically, the same press that cries about the atrocities committed by Boko Haram also goes ballistic when a firm like STTEP effectively helps to cut the same terrorists down to size. Agenda-driven media accounts of Barlow and his activities only exacerbate the situation.

Take, for instance, a recent article published in the Guardian, which was more than likely written in response to part four of this series in which Barlow rejects the racial narrative his company has been accused of by the press. The Guardian article is actually quite an embarrassment for the writer, David Smith, and his editors, who spin a superficial narrative about old white mercenaries fighting for profit in Nigeria. The article cites those who are far removed from the conflict, pointing out that, although they have turned the tide against Boko Haram, they’re still just a bunch of old white racists.

“The South African government has been fed such a false narrative by the South African media that it is possible they requested the Nigerian government not to extend the contract. The media here has tried very hard to turn this into a racial issue with the intent to create as much suspicion as possible,” Barlow wrote. “It is a sad day for Africa when a few in the media want to ensure a continuation of conflict as opposed to an end to it, and want to dictate who a government may use and who not.”

As for the claim that the SADF veterans are getting up there in age, Barlow doesn’t bat an eye. “Yes, many of us are no longer 20-year-olds,” Barlow told SOFREP. “However, we are all mentally and physically fit, and can hack it with our younger-generation employees. But, with our age has come knowledge of conflicts and wars in Africa they have yet to learn, a wealth of experience the youngsters do not have, and a steady hand when things get rough.” While the infantry may be a young man’s game, unconventional warfare requires a different, more mature, type of soldier.

Meanwhile, Nigeria is left to struggle with their internal security dilemmas, first among them being Boko Haram. “The enemy was not annihilated and was able to flee the battlefield with some of their forces intact, and will no doubt regroup and continue their acts of terror to enforce their political and religious philosophy,” Barlow said. “The ending of Boko Haram will be political and economical in nature, as you cannot kill an aspiration.”

The Nigerian government will have to continue to battle Boko Haram on the battlefield, but this effort will have to be done in tandem with political and economic reform in order to create a lasting peace. Barlow acknowledged this reality, arguing that military force is important, but not enough by itself. “Like elsewhere on the continent, the majority of the security problems will continue to be driven by socio-political factors and motivated at times by extremism.”

When it came to the subject of military reform in Nigeria, Barlow offered a few words of advice:

“I would like to see a reorganization of the security forces, including training to enable the security forces to pose an effective and credible deterrent to any bad guys. By reorganization, I mean a redesigning of the order of battle as African armies are merely clones of their pre-independence rulers, making them slow to react, lacking in flexibility, and relying on relative strengths. But all of this will require a refocused strategic vision and threat analysis, coupled to sound advice, training, and the correct equipment. From an equipment point of view, Africa has become the dumping ground of old, obsolete equipment that is purchased on bad advice.”

The future for the Nigerian strike force that STTEP trained is uncertain. Will it continue to operate as a highly mobile direct-action unit, or be disbanded? While STTEP and the strike force took Boko Haram down a few pegs, their final battle remains to be fought. If anything, the contractors and their Nigerian partners have provided the Nigerian government with some breathing room to institute the needed military, economic, and political reforms needed to ensure the Boko Haram is permanently neutered as a threat to the Nigerian people.

Barlow and his men demonstrated in Nigeria that it is possible to chalk up incredible successes against enemy insurgents, a vexing problem set that the American military has failed to adequately address in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and elsewhere.

“To defeat such an enemy militarily, we must out-think and outsmart him by adopting tactics, techniques, and procedures that are so unexpected and unconventional that he becomes confused and loses his cohesion. That is what we tried to do with the strike force, but three months is a very short time in which to do that effectively,” Barlow said, explaining his approach to warfare—a rejection of conventional thinking that lumps such conflicts into counterinsurgency models. “However, if the Nigerian Army does not annihilate the armed Boko Haram members, the government will not be able to negotiate from a position of ultimate strength or be able to govern in a secure environment.”

(Featured image: The strike force prepares for an early morning advance into enemy territory.)

Read more: http://sofrep.com/40865/eeben-barlow-speaks-pt-6-south-african-contractors-withdrawal-nigeria/#ixzz3a9AAopY7