DHQ: We Lost Soldiers in Recent Battles

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

The Nigerian Defence Headquarters yesterday admitted that it has lost some soldiers in battles at the various theatres of operations across the country in the last two weeks.

It said though the soldiers paid the supreme price, it brought about relative calm across the country.

Reviewing theatre operations in the last two weeks at a media briefing in Abuja, the Director of Defence Media Operations (DDMO), Brigadier General Benard Onyeuko, said in spite of the losses recorded across the country from July 2 to 15, 2021, some of its soldiers survived with diverse degrees of injuries, and were receiving adequate medical care.

According to him, “You are aware of our operational activities in the various geo-political zones of the country.

“Therefore, it is imperative to update the public on the efforts and operational activities of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies tackling insecurity in our dear country.

“These operations involved both kinetic and non-kinetic engagements in different locations within the various theatres, which yielded substantive results.

“While the security situation in some locations remained peaceful, some other areas recorded some incidents within the period.”

He stated that following military operations at the various theatres of operation, there was relative calm in the various theatres of operation.

Onyeuko stated further that: “Gleaning from the updates from the various theatres of operations as I have highlighted, there is no gainsaying there is a relative reduction in the spate of incidents in the various theatres of operations.

“However, in the course of these operations, some of our troops paid the supreme price while others sustained varying degrees of injuries.”

The DDMO said the armed forces had increased the tempo of operations with a view to containing criminal elements.

“The Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies will continue to forestall the activities of the enemies of our dear country. Thus, we have intensified our aggressive posture to reduce the activities of criminal elements.

“We have also intensified intelligence surveillance reconnaissance operations in all theatres of operations and main criminals’ logistics supply routes to frustrate movement of arms and ammunition as well as other unlawful items to criminal elements using various Nigerian Air Force platforms,” he said.