A major quantity of the autos, arms, and ammunition within the stock of Boko Haram and the rival Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) had been initially within the stockpile of the nationwide forces of the 4 Lake Chad Basin member states battling the extended insurgency.
Through the years, army seizures throughout operations and propaganda supplies from the rebel teams have supplied some perception into the categories and sources of deadly gear fueling the 13-year-old battle. Extra data was lately supplied by a report from the Battle Armament Analysis (CAR).
What propaganda supplies inform us
The propaganda supplies disseminated by ISWAP and Boko Haram are designed to move messages about their offensive capabilities and battlefield exploits. For researchers, this serves as a window into the teams’ weapons and automobile inventories.
In June, the Islamic State launched ISWAP’s 39 minutes lengthy video containing ideological messages and displaying the group’s soci0-economic actions, together with the hisbah enforcement and distribution of Zakat. That is along with clips displaying large-scale assaults on army items, the seize of weapons, and an rebel wearing a definite camouflage utilized by a Nigerian Special Forces unit whereas holding an ex-Chadian Galil ACE 32 rifle.
The video exhibits insurgents utilizing a variety of weapons, together with heavy machine weapons (HMG) mounted on pickup vans, to dislodge a base. It seems to have been filmed in June 2021 within the Bama space of central Borno, after the conquest of Sambisa and the absorption of some Boko Haram insurgents. ISWAP looted a number of weapons, together with AK sample and FN FAL rifles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG-7), ammunition, projectiles, and what was probably an SPG-9 recoilless gun. A Panhard VBL automobile with an HMG was additionally captured.
Final yr, HumAngle documented and analysed the development of weapon losses between January and August. The report coated army seizures, together with a number of Soviet-designed NSV and DShK HMGs, Chinese language-designed W-85, and Kind 85 HMGs, often mounted on vans as anti-personnel and anti-aircraft weapons. It additionally tracked ISWAP’s media show of sunshine and heavy weapons captured from the Army, Police, and Civilian Joint Activity Pressure (CJTF), alongside autos; stripped, destroyed, or stolen after assaults.
ISWAP often reuses pickup vans seized in raids, whereas armoured autos are both reused or stripped to fabricate armoured autos. The Nigerian army has typically encountered these autos; as an example, the army destroyed an ex-Nigerian Army Fv103 spartan tracked armoured provider utilized in a February assault. In November, it seized an improvised armoured provider fabricated utilizing armour from a Panhard VBL automobile.
In January, HumAngle documented the presence of Zastava M21 rifles most definitely captured from Cameroonian safety forces and a uncommon ex-Nigerian Army M-60 machine gun with Boko Haram insurgents.
At the very least 17 per cent of the weapons documented by CAR investigators had been diverted from the custody of the authorities in three nations, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, which analysed illicit weapons and ammunition recovered within the Niger Republic from the rebel teams.
The report acknowledged that 14 per cent had been in all probability diverted from the nationwide arsenals of Libya, Morocco, and Rwanda, whereas 11 per cent had been manufactured within the North African nations of Algeria and Egypt. Greater than 23 per cent of the documented ammunition was stated to have originated from Nigerian stockpiles.
The rebel teams had been additionally reported to have “acquired a major proportion of their weaponry opportunistically and inside their space of operation, together with by way of battlefield seize and raids on army and safety drive outposts, primarily between 2013 and 2019”.
An instance of a weapon from the pattern originating from the Nigerian army was a Serbian-manufactured Scorpion handgun with the serial quantity 16149 seized in July 2019 and traced to a consignment exported to the Navy in March 2014. Equally, an Air Pressure FN MAG general-purpose machine gun with the marking NAFMG-0242 was documented.
Different samples included two Chinese language Kind 56 assault rifles with serial numbers 5203280 and 5203051 and an SP COY 174BN inscription, indicating the weapons belonged to an organization of the Army’s 174th Battalion with a house base within the coastal metropolis of Lagos. The unit served fight excursions within the Northeast, struggling a significant setback in 2014 after their base within the Abadam space of northern Borno was dislodged.
A part of the weapons reviewed by the investigators had been French SG 542 and Israeli Galil assault rifles of Chadian origin.
The weapons profile of the rebel teams spotlights the significance of defending bases and stopping the lack of deadly gear belonging to safety forces. This strategy, alongside blocking illicit transnational arms move, might diminish the preventing capabilities of the teams.
It additionally helps forestall having to restock the gear destroyed and captured throughout army operations, corresponding to the continuing offensive within the area.
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