BlowBack:


That image is not of SA mercenaries operating in Nigeria but rather Afghanistan. The helicopter in the background is a Chinook which is operated mainly by US Special forces and saw active roles in Afghanistan because of their resilience in landing and operating over high altitude regions.

Helicopters can provide the much needed advantage in inserting and removing troops close to the fight. Does BH rely on helicopters to deploy their troops?

This is no excuse

https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/in-borno-south-african-mercenaries-are-real-heroes-fighting-boko-haram-report-reveals-id4694821.html

That is an interview with a mercenary.......

Another thing that grabbed attention is that these guys had Mi-24 attack helicopters, which are like flying tanks. With extremely heavy weaponry, they were conducting offensive operations.

What makes this so interesting is that Nigeria hired these guys with their own private armored helicopter, and I’m not talking about a Blackwater-style helicopter with men with machine guns in the exits; these Mi-24s are Russian military standard gear, armed with missiles and so on. It’s a private air force

-U know Helicopters can provide the much needed advantage and yet FG failed to equip soldiers with equipment s to combat terrorism! This is sad !!
- So FG should leave soldiers on the field without air support becos BHaram dont use helicopters to deploy their troops.
- Do you know this is a guerrilla warfare, that surprise is an element for this attack to be successful......
- Even US forces always call for air support when they are outnumbered and under heavy fire from Al queda fighters.

Willie2015:


https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/in-borno-south-african-mercenaries-are-real-heroes-fighting-boko-haram-report-reveals-id4694821.html

That is an interview with a mercenary.......

Another thing that grabbed attention is that these guys had Mi-24 attack helicopters, which are like flying tanks. With extremely heavy weaponry, they were conducting offensive operations.

What makes this so interesting is that Nigeria hired these guys with their own private armored helicopter, and I’m not talking about a Blackwater-style helicopter with men with machine guns in the exits; these Mi-24s are Russian military standard gear, armed with missiles and so on. It’s a private air force

-U know Helicopters can provide the much needed advantage and yet FG failed to equip soldiers with equipment s to combat terrorism! This is sad !!
- So FG should leave soldiers on the field without air support becos BHaram dont use helicopters to deploy their men.
- Do you know this is a guerrilla warfare, that surprise is an element for this attack to be successful......
- Even US forces always call for air support when they are outnumbered and under heavy fire from Al queda fighters.

If a private Military contractor can buy and operate a helicopter gunship why can't Nigeria?

There lies you answer to all this mess.

The Nigerian army is awash with cash but missing a lot of sense.

OP, I commend u for this piece. Just to add and support - AK 47 still remains one of the best assault rifles out there. Very much effective with NATO runs. The fight against BHT cannot he won by the Army alone, the Airforce needs to be actively involved. Air support is one of the advantages they have against the BHT. If the Airforce had been making rounds, circling all the Army camps, that attack wouldn’t have occurred. The Nigerian Army on its own needs to have camps in more secured areas. At least create a defensive parameter. Nothing stops them from setting up a higher ground and putting a sniper there, and some watchers using binoculars to survey the area at all times . I’m sure they know all these things but do not want to employ them.

BlowBack:


Wrong! Soldering is not supposed to be a suicide venture. Yes the job is dangerous as being a soldier you are trained in the art of killing other soldeirs trained to do the same to you. But that is where the risk ends.

Proper planning and organization by military commanders is expected to mitigate that risk towards achieving a military advantage or victory.

I watched a Vice Magazine documentary on Boko Haram and how the Nigerian Army was engaging with Boko Haram. The Military commander in that documentary had his troops dig a trench round their camp. That was his sole and primary line of defense with a T-72 Tank as the spear tip of his defense.

There were so many things wrong in that video which highlighted to me that the Nigerian Army's Officer corp is in dire need of overhawling their existing military manuals.

A T-72 Tank is not needed in fighting BH who had at best in their arsenal light skinned civilian Toyota trucks.

The Toyota trucks can easily outmaneuver an armoured Tank and a Tank needs at least a platoon to form a perimeter defense round it.

Google Toyota War and see how Chadian Rebels were able to defeat the more advanced Libyan army and you will understand what I am talking about.

What is needed against BH are light and blazing squads or platoons constantly in recon patrols and quick to come to each others defense in less than one minute.

100 or more soldiers in one stationary position, cut off from supply lines with poor communications link and support from base command is a juicy target begging to be attacked.

we had exactly this in the 72 MSF under GEJ government, those guys took the fight to BH riding their reva MRAP in lightening speed attacks backed by gazelle helucopters

Today the deal for gazelle and fenec helicopters for the nigerian army aviation corps was stopped by this freaking government, leaving the project still in infancy to die.
As for the 72 msf i dont know if they have been disbanded or merged into their so called taskforce battalions that have achieved little

FarahAideed:


You have made a lot of sense but the unit in Metele was a battle hardened unit so courage was not in lack and they had quite some hardware from Manin battle tanks to MRAP and had been in the fire front of carrying search and destroy offensives against Boko Haram camps .. I gather that unit had completely ran out of Ammunition and spare parts for their men and fighting vehicles and had been waiting for re supply for days and how this info Got to ISWAP is the mystery and ISWAP took good advantage of it and punished the dreaded unit .. The men didn't run, many held their line their and had to be shot inside their trenches

this is what i have heard and been saying, the logistics arm of the 7 divison needs to be flogged

Willie2015:


You are wrong. Google is your friend

U dont conduct offensive operation without helicopters...

This is one of the reported mercenaries in Borno with the Mi-24 in the background.

nope bro wrong picture, that is an american chinook helicopter and not our russian mi-24,p

Meanwhile the russian PMC group that came was named Executive Outcomes and was headed by Eben Barlow a veteran of the south african. Border wars . They never engaged in battle as they were contracted to train the 72 MSF and the battalion that j
Held Konduga

eduj:

exactly, the ak47 shouldn't be the main infantry rifle of a country like ours.our soildiers would have to be in effective range of iswap themselves,before our infantry engages them (since they both use same riffle).If we had say an m16,our men can decimate iswap infantry before they get into effective range of their ak47's.
Neopotism and training is also a problem though.

the AK-47 is not the problem, the problem is how we use it and what variants we have ,apart fron the norico and AKM versions, there are newer and more stable versions of the AK-47 itself, modified and fitted for use , not the AK-74 etc.
It is still rugged and strong, the M-16 is no longer in use as it is known to jam severally on full automatic, the US uses the M-4 as a standard infantry rifle.

But personally i think its time we move over to the Azk-74 since we want to hand over the beryl AK versions to the SF teams, heck even a large section of the police use the AK-74

These militants are nothing but thieves. They make you believe that they are fighting for the interest of the Niger Deltans, but they were only serving their own personal interests. I'm not going to mention names, you're aware a few of these militants became billionaires after the amnesty. If really they were fighting for emancipation of the Niger Deltans, why did they not use part of the wealth they got from the FG to better the lots of their people?

I am from the Niger Delta and I have been to all other ND states too, including some of the creeks, so I know what I'm saying.

Please confirm, there was military action, before the Amnesty, authorized by Yar'Adua. Otherwise, do you think the Amnesty would have been effective. Even after the Amnesty, the military actions continued on the camps of the militants who refuse to surrender.

BlowBack:


He is right!

As I said earlier, the Niger Delta insurgency arose due to mainly political considerations that required political solutions.

Yaradua was very intelligent to know that not all problems require military action unlike Obasanjo or Buhari who as military men saw every problem as a nail requiring a hammer.

LordAdam16, has elaborated very well why the Nigerian Army were told to stand down by Yaradua because if he hadn't chances are that Nigeria would have been since partitioned.

The best write up from someone who understands wht is happening!

am so in love with this thread, mature and constructive as well as educating. though I am ignorant in this field, believe me I am learning a whole lot.

thanks to you guys.

PatrickOkunima
BlowBack
cannonleo ET Al.

Honestly, If not for this Civilian JTF down here, BHT would have run downed the North East.
Even the BHTs fear them more than our soldiers.

samuelchimmy:
sir you've made a great point here, I think every of the possible cause of this great lose outlined here on this thread in one way or the other generally affected this out come, but the most significant of them all is the bolded above, this is the singular cause of the huge casualties, why this is the case I don't know....

Do you think there could be moles sabotaging the NA?

There are lots of moles Sir, High Ranking and Low Ranking Ones.

PatrickOkunima:
These militants are nothing but thieves. They make you believe that they are fighting for the interest of the Niger Deltans, but they were only serving their own personal interests. I'm not going to mention names, you're aware a few of these militants became billionaires after the amnesty. If really they were fighting for emancipation of the Niger Deltans, why did they not use part of the wealth they got from the FG to better the lots of their people?

I am from the Niger Delta and I have been to all other ND states too, including some of the creeks, so I know what I'm saying.

Please confirm, there was military action, before the Amnesty, authorized by Yar'Adua. Otherwise, do you think the Amnesty would have been effective. Even after the Amnesty, the military actions continued on the camps of the militants who refuse to surrender.

Yes they're thieves. In fact, I'll raise you one and tell you quite a chunk of them used to be cultists and part of gangs committing all manner of vices. But when as a people you've been appropriated for 50+ years, the Nigeria state had reduced derivation to the region to almost nil, and anyone who dared complain or protest was put to the sword by some trigger-happy fellow including women and children who died during the IYC protest in the late 90's, there comes a time when there'd be armed resistance.

Kings from the region did same again the British over palm oil. King of Nembe (modern day Bayelsa state) sacked an outpost. He was exiled but this time around the region wasn't going to let themselves be ass-f*cked by people who call themselves "fellow country men and women." Boro's skirmish was put down. Saro Wiwa didn't go any further than designing an Ogoni flag. The Nigerian state NEVER learned from history and thought there were always going to have it easy.

Of course the individuals best suited to go toe-to-toe with the military were the cultists, armed robbers, and what not. And boy were they funded. It is no different than the military using prisoners for operations during time of war. And if you're talking about the boys becoming rich. Of course they did. The Northern elite that divvied up the oil resource without visiting the creeks became rich from the proceeds. Why not the boys who put their lives on the line? The Niger Delta elite that propped up the boys also got rich from the War. Edwin Clark is richer than some state governors. So why not the boys? The states got Ministry of Niger Delta and 13% derivation. Even with the massive corruption, which is endemic to every region, it still trickled down to the civil servants and populace. Same people supporting the war.

Even many of the military officers that had been drafted to the oil installations since 1960 were part of the oil bunkering racket. The JTF command was no different than the Mexican army with the drug cartel.

It beggars belief that you sit on your high horse and call your people thieves and supporting criminals while you served with the same organization that turned a village of civilians to dust--essentially committing a war crime. Then you begin to wonder why people have no sympathy when soldiers are massacred and tied to trucks like rams. The boys are thieves, but your military high command diverting funds and leaking troop movements are not thieves and criminals.

The impetus you have to try to be a moral authority makes me want to vomit inside my mouth. If the insurgency were to resume today, it'd still get the maximum support from the populace as it did at the start in 2004. And more soldiers will simply be sacrificed to Egbesu until the elite realize it's a futile effort to repress legitimate demands even if you don't like the actors.

The problem with you guys at the front line is believing every engagement is a noble cause, wars are between good guys and bad guys, and failing to understand the intricacies of the machinations that may fuel or sustain a war. American soldiers learned about it the hard way in Aghanistan. Nigerian soldiers are learning about it first hand in the North East.

-Lord

The army is full of sissies who joined the force so they can frog jump a 'bloody civilian'. They actually run once the daredevil Boko boys surface.

Cannonleo:
nope bro wrong picture, that is an american chinook helicopter and not our russian mi-24,p

Meanwhile the russian PMC group that came was named Executive Outcomes and was headed by Eben Barlow a veteran of the south african. Border wars . They never engaged in battle as they were contracted to train the 72 MSF and the battalion that j
Held Konduga

-I agree with you that they trained the 72 MSF, that,s the general narrative.
- Go and read Eeben interview on his blog on their strategy in fighting Boko Haram
- At times, we are asked to plan the overall operation and then oversee the execution.
-While the Nigerian government has insisted the South Africans' role was mainly as "technical advisers", Col Barlow suggested his men had been involved in direct combat. His air power unit was “given ‘kill blocks’ to the front and flanks of the strike force and could conduct missions in those areas,” he said. His forces also helped with intelligence gathering, troop transportation and evacuation of casualties.

femu:
Do the soldiers have binoculars, radios? They believe so much in offensive weapons than tactics and planning.

Also they ought to do regular patrols at least 3 times per day

yeah! war is more about tactic or strategy and planning than weapon. Berlin and Germany during the second world war is a typical example. if u get this ones right u could even gain the sophisticated weapons of your enemies to fight them.

Xisnin:

I hope you are typing this from Sambisa forest.
Coward!

Come on Sharrap dia. Did I enlisted in d army?

The soldiers voluntarily enlisted in the NA and are of the terms (ultimate sacrifice if need be)

BlowBack:


That's because they were high on meth.

See my post above yours for clarification

I see

A demoralised army can be defeated by any ragtag enemy. This is the case of the nigerian army.

Willie2015:


-I agree with you that they trained the 72 MSF, that,s the general narrative.
- Go and read Eeben interview on his blog on their strategy in fighting Boko Haram
- At times, we are asked to plan the overall operation and then oversee the execution.
-While the Nigerian government has insisted the South Africans' role was mainly as "technical advisers", Col Barlow suggested his men had been involved in direct combat. His air power unit was “given ‘kill blocks’ to the front and flanks of the strike force and could conduct missions in those areas,” he said. His forces also helped with intelligence gathering, troop transportation and evacuation of casualties.

first off all i apologize for my error in calling EO a russian pmc, it was south African Obviously typed with sleepy eyes.
I know for a fact that EO specialists travelled with the 72MSF a lot and i know they engaged to the best of my knowledge once or twice in hong lga and in monguno where one of them was killed.
But regardless from insider sources, they took care of majorly technical issues direct combat was out of the question except in situations where there was no choice.

I can say yes or no but i know for sure major operations did not have them involved.

PatrickOkunima:
First, may the souls of our soldiers who lost their lives at Melete find eternal peace. Their sacrifices will not go in vain. It is also my prayer that the Almighty God console their families.

I have watched the footage of the recent attack on our soldiers, as well as the previous ones and most commentators, including civilians and soldiers (retired and serving) attribute the heavy casualty to lack of equipment.

Having served in the military, I have a first-hand experience of how sophisticated hardware can be a morale booster to a soldier. There are other factors that affect morale which I am not here to discuss. So I know what I'm saying when I say lack of equipment is not the major problem.

All the Boko Haram videos I watched, I observed a common trend - Our soldiers did not put in adequate resistance or did not resist at all. That is "unsoldierlike" (if there's any word like that).

As a soldier, you hope for the best and prepare for the worst. What do I mean? I have seen soldiers, Nigerian soldiers who served 35 years, and throughout their service, the only time they fired a rifle was at the range. They never had the opportunity to shoot at a real enemy. On the other hand, we have soldiers who in less than 3 months of passing out from the training school, found themselves under enemy attack and lost their lives in the process. You see, best case scenario and worst case scenario. Everyone hopes for the best, but if you are not prepared for the worst, you have no business being a soldier - That's by the way.

People may have different opinions as to why the casualty was high - over 70 as reported, but for me, lack of orientation was the problem. An average person believes that the best way to escape danger is to run. That may be true in some cases, but in the war fronts, nothing makes you more vulnerable than running away from the enemy. Let me rephrase, the easiest way to die in the war fronts is to run away from the enemy. If you're a soldier reading this, please take note. If you're not a soldier and you have a friend or brother who is, please tell him or her.

Let's try to look at it this way. Every other factor remain constant, assuming all the soldiers at Melete base are 100 in strength, and were attacked by Boko Haram (500 of them). If each of these soldiers had stood their grounds and engaged these terrorist, do you think we would have had up to 70 casualties? No, I very much doubt that. The worst case would have been 15 - 20 deaths.

The probability of me losing my life:

If I do not fight the enemy is 70/100 = 0.7

If I fight the enemy is 20/100 = 0.2

With this mindset, every soldier will prefer to engage the enemy and increase his chance of survival.

"If the enemy attacks, what and what do I do to survive?" That's the question I ask myself each time I find myself in a volatile environment. After which I come-up with a plan to follow, in case of any eventuality.

One thing that is not in my plan, is to turn my back at the enemy and run away from battle, or refuse to use my weapon on the enemy, cos I know that won't do me any good.

The Nigerian Military should put it into the skulls of our soldiers that when they refuse to engage the enemy, they suffer more casualties. They should also conduct simulation exercises for the men (If they have not been doing that already) before operations and in preparedness for an attack. They should not assume that everyone knows what to do in the event of an attack.

Please share, you may be saving a life.

That is if the soldiers don't run out of bullet , you can be talking about standing on one's ground, to fight with knives and cutlasses?? Lol

Firstly RIP to our fallen heroes,however in my own opinion I think the NA trusted their guts too much and were over confident in this scenario because I recall that the BHT had written to them to inform them of the attack previously so I believe they were in a better position to ambush and surprise the BHT because as the Yoruba's say Ogun Awitele ki pa aro,eyi ti o ba gbon.

The engine room of the BHT are their gun trucks with ,GPMGs,AA guns,high caliber guns and RPG,s which means neutralizing the gun trucks would be a game changer in this attack,from the video we can see how the base was first heavily pounded by the gun trucks before the Kalashnikov wielding foot soldiers went in for the kill so they had a well planned strategy good old land mines would have done a great job in destroying at least some if not all of these gun trucks in transit if they had a well mined perimeter to the base.

Having been forewarned they should have sent snipers and scouts scattered all over the terrain of the base and would be better if the sniper teams are harmed with RPGs/grenade launchers or at least good old grenades,they would have engaged the BHT while in transit on the way to the base and slow them down at least giving soldiers at the base time to retreat or regroup to provide back up to the sniper and scouting units.

This would have been a cheaper alternative assuming the NA can't afford hi tech gadgets like UAV,s drones and all.

The NA also really needs to step up in their Intel because I can hardly believe its taking them forever to infiltrate the BH camps and totally annihilate them from within.