Nigerian Army relocates special forces training school to former Boko Haram stronghold

The Nigerian Army has moved its
Special Forces Training School to Buni
Yadi, a town once controlled by Boko
Haram in Yobe State.
Created at the peak of the Boko Haram
insurgency, the Special Forces is
considered one Nigerian Army’s most
effective fighting unit.
While giving reasons why the training
school was moved from Niger State to
Buni Yadi, the Chief of Army Staff,
Tukur Buratai, said it was because of
the strategic location of the town in the
fight against the Boko Haram
insurgents.
“We know the importance of this place
– Buni Yadi. This is the route they
(insurgents) passed through to other
parts of the North East and even
Plateau in the North Central,” he said
while addressing troops at the training
school on Saturday.
“It is better for us to have dominated
and taken over the place,” the
Lieutenant General said while assuring
the troops of their welfare and logistics
need, including required equipment to
prosecute the war.
Buni Yadi, the headquarters of Gujba
Local Government Area, was controlled
by the Boko Haram for several months
before it was recaptured by the
military in March 2015. It is the town
where 59 schoolboys were murdered
by the Boko Haram as they slept in
their dormitories at a Federal
Government College in 2014.
The town is also the headquarters of
the 27 Task Force Brigade of the
Nigeria Army.
Speaking on Saturday, Mr. Buratai
assured that the military will restore
full peace to the North East in line with
the desire of President Muhammadu
Buhari.
He charged the troops to sustain the momentum of
ongoing counter insurgency operations to flush out
the insurgents.
According to him, “Operation Lafia Dole’ has entered
a critical stage. You must sustain the momentum;
there is no going back
“There is no time to waste. We want full restoration
of peace in the North East. That is what the
president wants,” the chief of army staff said.
Mr. Buratai later told journalists that he was in Buni
Yadi to see how the troops undergoing the Special
Forces training were faring.
He explained that the exercise was to make the
personnel resilient and be able to withstand
challenges they might face in the course of the
ongoing operations.

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