By Ajani Okanlawon
Contrary to claims by the military high command, there are reports that Nigerian soldiers are noticeably missing in towns recovered from Boko Haram.
According to reports, Damasak which was liberated by soldiers from Chad and Niger on Saturday, March 14 is now a ghost town as all of its estimated 200,000 residents have fled.
Also missing are Nigerian soldiers who are expected to keep guard to prevent the militants from coming back.
In the absence of Nigerian troops, soldiers from the neighbouring countries of Chad and Niger are seen on patrol in the town located in Mobbar Local Government Area of Borno State.
Damasak is a trading town near Niger’s border and is about 200km (120 miles) from Borno’s capital city of Maiduguri.
A report in The New York Post on Saturday reads in part: “The Chadians ushered a small group of journalists around for a brief look this week, offering a rare glimpse into the group’s northern Nigerian stronghold, and into the dimensions, and difficulties, of a cross-border, four-nation fight against the Islamists.
“Rather than a display of important regional cooperation in the battle against Boko Haram, the visit instead pointed out some of the confusion and resentment that are creating tension among neighbours. The soldiers from Chad and Niger had succeeded here, but there was not a single Nigerian soldier to be found. The force members were bewildered to find themselves as foreign liberators without any help from the Nigerians.
“Even as the Nigerian government, with a national election looming, insists that its forces have chased Boko Haram fighters out of much of their northern territory, the deserted streets and all-foreign force here paint a different picture. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians still cannot return home to towns that have been, nominally at least, freed from Boko Haram.”
While the foreign soldiers say they do not want to occupy somebody else’s country, there are fears that the Islamist fighters will simply return if they leave and the Nigerians have not arrived to take over.
“We asked them to come, to receive this town from us, but they have not come,” said Second Lt. Mohammed Hassan from Chad, adding that “it is because they (Nigerian soldiers) are afraid.”
The “foreign liberators” want the Nigerian military to take over the security of Damasak.
“It is up to them to hold the town, not us,” said Lieutenant Hassan. “Our role is offensive. Our mission is to chase the terrorists,” he said.
“But they are afraid,” he repeated angrily.
“Our biggest wish is that the Nigerian Army pulls itself together — that it takes responsibility in the towns,” said Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chadian foreign minister. “We are ready to disengage, right away.”
