Corruption Creeping Back into Nigerian Military Gives Power to Boko Haram

83 Nigerian soldiers missing after Boko Haram attack

By Ed Adamczyk  


Nigerian army members with refugees from Boko Haram. Sources said 83 Nigerian soldiers remain missing after an attack on their installation in the village of Gashigar in Borno state. Photo courtesy of Nigerian Army/Facebook

GASHIGAR , Nigeria, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Eighty-three Nigerian soldiers are missing six days after a battle with Boko Haram forces, military sources said.

The soldiers remain unaccounted for after the Islamist insurgents attacked their base at Gashigar in Nigeria's Borno state. The Nigerian army confirmed the attack last week but has not offered updates nor mentioned the missing soldiers. The Nigerian newspaper Pulse, citing a story in the Premium Times, said top military sources confirmed the soldiers were missing.

The sources suggested the soldiers may have drowned in the Yobe River while fleeing the attack. About 22 soldiers were rescued from the river by Niger's army and are recovering in a Diffa, Niger, hospital, they said, but others were shot and killed as they attempted to escape in the river. 

Corruption - Soldiers unpaid, fed 1 meal per day

The sources added poor morale, brought on by unpaid salaries and only one meal per day, is affecting the Nigerian army as it seeks to control the insurgent group; they suggested commanding officers are skimming the daily pay and rations for their own benefit, a practice common during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan but allegedly changed by President Muhammudu Buhari.

President Buhari, your country is slipping back into its former ways of world-class corruption. It's time to clean house again. You do not want to be compared with Goodluck Jonathon.

A renewed show of strength by Boko Haram comes after several months of the Nigerian army's claims that it is winning the battle against the insurgents, and that combat operations will soon slow. The army announced Saturday that 21 people were arrested for livestock rustling, a common means in Borno state of funding Boko Haram.

    Gashigar is north of Maiduguri along the Niger border