Nigerian Air Force has commenced a training of its Special Forces to combat the growing operation of terrorists and armed bandits’ attacks in the North West region of Nigeria.
About 175 special forces operatives graduated at the Regiment Training Centre at the Airforce base in Kaduna state after a successful 10-week rigorous and intensive training in asymmetric warfare.
In the past three years, a new wave of Islamist terrorists have invaded Zamfara and Sokoto states in the North West, killing thousands of Nigerians and establishing terror-bases in the region.
Speaking during his visit to see the graduating students at their training camp, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar said the new threats of terrorism as well as the challenges presented by kidnapping and rural armed banditry across the country, necessitated the special training.
He also reiterated the commitment of the Air Force to collaborate with other security agencies, especially the Army to address the nation’s security challenges.
“From here where we are building capacity to protect our bases, we are also supporting and working very closely with other security forces, particularly the Nigerian Army, to ensure that we have a secured environment
“It’s not only war against terror, we have armed banditry, we have other criminals. Like I said, primarily we are to secure our bases and to secure our air assets. The secondary objective is to support the internal security operations all over the country.
“These men are graduating; another batch of officers are coming in now. And we have trained over 1,000 special forces in the last 4 years or thereabout,” he stated.
