Following the abduction of the Chibok girls in April 2014, Britain was one of the countries that pledged military assistance to Nigeria to arrest the growth of terrorism. Although no ground troops were sent in, Britain offered intelligence and trainers to assist the Nigerian military and this is to be stepped in 2016.
Michael Fallon, the British secretary of state for defence, recently revealed this after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja yesterday.. He added that the military personnel, who will be in Nigeria next year, will be offering training to improve the Nigerian Army’s resilience to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) left behind by Boko Haram.
Mr Fallon added: “Britain and Nigeria are both democracies, we are free peoples, free to choose our governments but these terrorists Isis and Boko Haram are opposed to us, our ways of life and they need to be defeated. So, we have been discussing today what more Britain can do and if we can step up our military effort with more training, more help in dealing with IEDs and in dealing with medical evacuation and airfield defence.
“We also looked at what more can be done to improve the intelligence Nigeria needs to deal with terrorism. This year, for example, we have had some 130 military personnel here helping to train the Nigerian Army and next year, I want to more than double that to more than 300 personnel."
In addition, Mr Fallon added that the British government would want to do more to help stabilise areas liberated by the soldiers. He pointed out that the British government will not only be assisting in the provision of security and rehabilitation of the affected areas but will ensure economic development of the areas.
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