North-East is more secure now – Army

Maj.-Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, Theatre Commander, Joint Task Force, North East Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), says the information concern successful the portion has improved importantly pursuing sustained counter-terrorism operations and renewed synergy among information agencies.

He said this successful an interrogation with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) connected Saturday successful Maiduguri.

Abubakar said the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) maintained the operational inaugural crossed the theatre, denying terrorists the state of question and entree to logistics that erstwhile fuelled their campaigns of terror.

He said the lingering insecurity successful the Northeast was not an isolated improvement but alternatively intimately linked to broader determination and planetary developments, including instability successful the Sahel, the Middle East, and the Russia–Ukraine war.

“Since November past year, we person observed an summation successful the usage of equipped drones and radio-controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by the terrorists. These trends are nonstop consequences of planetary technological proliferation linked to conflicts elsewhere.

“However, our forces proceed to clasp the initiative. The extremity of the equipped forces remains to flush retired the terrorists from their remaining strongholds successful Sambisa Forest, the Mandara Mountains, the Tumbuns and the Lake Chad Islands (LCI),” helium said.

Abubakar highlighted that coordinated operations aimed astatine achieving this strategical nonsubjective were yielding singular results.

He said, “In the past 2 months alone, astir 26 cardinal violent commanders person been neutralised, with important recoveries of arms, ammunition and vehicles. Many insurgent camps person been cleared and destroyed, forcing remnants of the groups into isolated pockets.

“Socio-economic activities person resumed successful astir areas antecedently nether violent influence. Markets person reopened, schools are functioning, and roads that were erstwhile unsafe present acquisition regular question of goods and people. That is simply a large milestone for america arsenic a nation.”

The commandant said sustained unit by the Nigerian Army troops had restored assurance among the citizens, starring to accrued voluntary returns to ancestral homes nether the Borno State Government’s resettlement framework.

While highlighting immoderate of the cardinal achievements of the operations, Abubakar described the strangulation of the terrorists’ logistics strategy arsenic a turning constituent successful the combat against Boko Haram and ISWAP.

“By cutting disconnected their proviso chains, we person efficaciously crippled their capableness to prolong prolonged engagements. Several IED-making factories person been discovered and destroyed, and we person recorded tremendous successes successful intercepting their logistics convoys,” helium said.

Abubakar cited the July 2025 cognition successful Dikwa, wherever troops recovered implicit 50 lethal Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), arsenic an illustration of however intelligence-led missions disrupted force capabilities.

He said the troops neutralised much than 257 terrorists successful coordinated crushed and aerial offensives, with galore others surrendering on with their families betwixt July and September, 2025.

“The terrorists’ employment of drones has besides been curtailed done the deployment of precocious anti-drone exertion and improved aerial dominance made imaginable by the unwavering enactment of the Military High Command.

“Recoveries of weapons person accrued significantly, and our sustained violative operations person continued to shrink the conflict abstraction for the terrorists,” helium said.

Reacting to reports of renewed attacks successful immoderate borderline communities astir Kirawa, Abubakar said the incidents were hopeless attempts by the terrorists to make fearfulness and pull attention.

“Most of these attacks are confined to distant borderline settlements, reflecting desperation alternatively than strength. Kirawa was antecedently nether the information model of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), but we person present made capable deployments to fortify power and forestall further incursions,” Abubakar said.

To stem the attacks, Abubakar said the subject bid had deployed further troops and logistics assets to the Kirawa axis, including speedy effect teams, armoured vehicles and surveillance units to guarantee ...