Defence sources said plans were being drawn up to bolster a small existing UK training mission in the Nigerian capital as the extremists continue to seize territory and wage a bloody campaign of attacks.
Defence planners are looking at boosting the UK training force to two or three dozen soldiers, though any final decision will have to be made by the national security council.
One source said: “We are scoping it at the moment. There’s some internal debate about what we could do and what we would want to do.”
The RAF sent three Tornado GR4s to the country this summer to help efforts to track down the schoolgirls taken from the remote town of Chibok. Some of the captives have escaped, but the majority remain missing and the group claims they have been married off to its fighters.
Matthew Henman, manager of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said the Nigerian military was badly led, demoralised and riddled with accusations of corruption.
The Boko Haram militants, who number several thousand fighters in several loosely aligned factions, are by contrast highly motivated, experienced and well equipped.
The militants have begun to push out of their strongholds in three states in the country’s north east and make gains further afield. Despite some recent successes, the government has largely been unable to resist their advance.
He said: “The past year or 18 months has been pretty terrible for the Nigerian military, with concerted military operations only exacerbating insurgent violence in the northeast.
“What we have seen in the past four or five months is they have been expanding their campaign to seize control of territory, while the Nigerian military has been unable to resist or push back.”
He said the Nigerian military desperately needed building up.
He said: “What they really need is capacity building, because currently the Nigerian military is almost thoroughly outclassed by the militants in terms of arms, morale, and training.
“There’s a fundamental lack of capacity and leadership in the officer class to wage effective operations, although the claimed recent recapture of Mubi, capital of Adamawa State, from Boko Haram seemingly represents a much-needed success.”
He said well over 2,500 civilians and military personnel are estimated to have been killed in Boko Haram violence this year alone.
More than a million people have fled their homes because of the violence according to Red Cross estimates.
William Hague, then the Foreign Secretary, said in June that Britain would deliver more military aid, intelligence support and aid.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The Defence contribution includes training and advice to the Nigerian armed forces. This capacity building effort is being delivered through short-term training teams of various sizes, augmenting the work of our permanent British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT).
“All UK assistance is rigorously assessed against strict human rights compliance procedures.”
Photo by: Utomi Ekpe/AFP
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