The Chief of Defense Staff General Lucky Irabor on Saturday visited the headquarters of the Theatre Command accompanied by the service chiefs.
He asked soldiers to be more resilient in their duties, pushing beyond setbacks and put an end to the counter-insurgency war.
“The theatre commander and his officers have been giving us a thorough brief beyond the report that we received at the headquarters,” General Irabor said.
“And we can only commend you for the resilience you have shown in this past month. The various successes that you have recorded inspire a few drawbacks that did not deter you you remain resilient and commitment.”
On the vulnerability of towns and villages in and around the lake chad areas especially Guzamala and Kukawa almost a year after its liberation, Irabor said: “It’s a work in progress, peace is a work in progress, counter-terrorism is a work in progress it is not an end state itself, the end state is peace but it’s not the product. So we will keep working on it and at the end of the day every space of land including the Timbus will be controlled by the civil authorities.”
This comes amid reports of an ambush on Nigerian soldiers in Gudumbali, a village in Kukawa local government of Borno state.
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Suspected Boko haram insurgents laid ambush as a military convoy drove past on a routine patrol around Kauwa village on Thursday.
The military is being supported by members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, volunteers extracted from the community leveraging on their knowledge of the terrain.
The ambush left scores injured and an unspecified number of military personnel killed, the military is silent about the attack.
But from the civilian side the CJTF Commander of Kukawa local government, identified as Yusuf Baba is one of the casualties of the ambush. Some of his members have still not been accounted for 48 hours after the ambush.
“There was an ambush against troops who left cross Kauwa and heading towards Kukawa. The troops were on ten gun trucks when they were attacked. There were casualties from both sides,” a military source who pleaded anonymity told Channels Television.
“Both soldiers/CJTF and ISWAP. Four civilian JTF including two of their leaders were killed. Bodies were recovered and buried yesterday.”
However, it is still not clear how many soldiers were affected, as the Media Coordinator Operation Lafiya Dole Colonel Ado Isa is yet to reply a message sent to him seeking details of the ambush.
The army has reportedly instituted a search party to comb the forests in search of those they kidnapped after the raid.
