Nigerian Army Relocates Special Forces Training School to Former Boko Haram Stronghold

Nigerian Army on parade

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.

Nigeria Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Buratai

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.