The senator representing Borno South, Sen. Ali Ndume, says that insurgency in the North East has persisted because of critical challenges confronting the nation’s armed forces.
Ndume, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, stated this on Wednesday.
According to him, the renewed insurgency in the region would continue unless poor funding of the armed forces and inadequate personnel prosecuting counter-insurgency operations were addressed.
Describing the renewed attacks as unfortunate, Ndume expressed confidence in the military’s ability to effectively end insurgency in the zone.
“The challenge that the military have now is lack of resources and inadequate personnel. As long as the resources are not deployed in terms of what they would need, we would continue to have this (insurgency) challenge.
“In an operation like this, we have only 30, 000 soldiers on ground which is grossly inadequate. They (Federal Government) have to do something urgently about that,” Ndume told The Punch.
He disclosed that the military has taken over three councils in the region that were recently overrun by Boko Haram insurgents.
However, he lamented that residents of the areas have yet to return home.
Ndume appealed to the Federal Government to back the military so that residents can return to their ancestral homes as soon as possible.
The Herald recalls that Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum on Tuesday appealed to the military not to relocate residents of two communities in Kaga LGA to an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp following insurgent attacks in the areas over the weekend.
He said the proposed relocation could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the state.
Read Also: “Operation Amotekun”: Police react as South-West security outfit launches today