What We See In Sambisa Forest Will Shocks You Says BBOG

The BBOG delegation was led by Dr. Oby Ezekwesili (Co-convener), who was accompanied by Aisha Yesufu,  Ibrahim Usman and Dr. Manasseh Allen, representative, Chibok Community and uncle to some of the girls abducted by Boko Haram from Government Secondary School, Chibok, by on 14 April 2014.                        
The account of the group's observations was contained in a report jointly signed by the four members of its delegation to Sambisa.      

The group reported that members of its delegation interacted with the leadership of the Nigerian Air Force, which enabled them to assess the quality of Air Force personnel and were impressed with what they saw.

"We can confirm that the air component of the counterinsurgency war is being prosecuted by a highly professional, capable, motivated and committed team of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF).

Furthermore, the presentation by the Chief of Air Staff on the training and human capital development strategy of the NAF enabled us to appreciate its plans for the future.  We saw that Data, Knowledge and Information Analysis play a significant role in the strategy of the Nigerian Air Force prosecuting the air component of the war.  Our exposure to the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform and the technical room of NAF indicated the level of adoption of technology in the prosecution of the war," said the report.              

The BBOG team also said it was presented with data on the growing fleet of ISRs, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and other tools and equipment available to prosecute the air component of the war by NAF. It similarly claimed to have observed the synergy between the NAF and the Nigerian Army, which prosecutes the ground component of the war.                                            

"We were provided data and imagery evidence to show that the search for our Chibok Girls and other abducted citizens is a daily activity by NAF. The data sheet showing the summary of all search operations was displayed with the following key data points over the last eighteen months by NAF: Total Missions to Sambisa General Area--2,105, Number of Sorties--- 3,534, Time/Hour of flight--- 6,323, Fuel Cost: Over N2.4 billion," added  the report.        

According to the group,  the day sortie (the three-hour search flight on the ISR platform in which the delegation participated on 16 January) had them being flown at as low as 15,000 feet.  This said the BBOG  enabled its members to see the theater of war in Sambisa and to clearly observe activities on the ground via the technology platform within the aircraft.

"We observed cases of human movement and saw a woman running with a child. When our Day Sortie report was later analyzed, it showed that 14 women were gathered around a suspicious location which the NAF designated as the "Tree of Life" because it has been suspecting enemy movement around that spot. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) stated that they would probe the result further with their army colleagues in order to determine the appropriate response," the report stated.     For the night sortie,  which took place at  2.41 AM on 17 January,  the group experienced a similar flight search of the theater of war like it did during the day.      

"We were told by the NAF that until the acquisition of more equipment by our military since July 2015, the terrorists used to be most active at night time as darkness offered them advantage. It was usually during the night that they moved their captives who are mostly women, girls and children across locations.  Interestingly, our Night Sortie only revealed one movement on the ground-- an animal foraging for food," the group disclosed.                      

The searches, it explained, also enable the NAF to sight enemy activities and to determine appropriate response jointly with the Nigerian Army. It added that the NAF presentation revealed its missions in which it sighted Boko Haram terrorists (BHT)