DHQ says Troops Coordinated Airstrike Destroy Lakurawa Terrorist Hideouts in Sokoto state.
By Ewache Ajefu
The Defence Headquarters has said that on 25 Dec 24, a coordinated joint operation was conducted between the Air Component and the Land Component of Operation FANSAN YAMMA to destroy Lakurawas Terrorists Group (LTG) hideouts at Gidan Bisa and Gidan Runtuwa in Jirikon Forest in Silame LGA of Sokoto State.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba disclosed this in statement made available to the Media in Abuja.
He said prior to the operation, there was heightened terrorists activities in the area. The military conducted sustained Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions for over extended periods to painstakingly confirm that those hibernating in the area were Lakurawa terrorist.
Significantly , the operation was rescheduled from an earlier date to 25 Dec 24 in order to allow for further confirmation using Human Intelligence. The joint operation was planned such that, the Air Component’s precision strike capability was complimented by the Land Component’s boots on the ground.
Pre-operation ISR missions confirmed significant terrorist activity within the general area. HUMINT reports equally corroborated the ISR findings, emphasizing the strategic importance of neutralizing the location.
Subsequently, aircrafts conducted a precision airstrike on the identified hideouts at about 0600hrs. The strike was executed with precision-guided munitions to minimize collateral damage.
The Land Component deployed at blocking positions around the target location to prevent the escape of Lakurawas terrorist. They also provided immediate post-strike assessment and follow-up actions.
Following the airstrike, ground forces moved into the area to assess the strike’s impact. The ground forces confirmed that the hideout was successfully neutralized, with minimal damage observed in the surrounding village. The ground forces interacted with the locals in area whom confirmed presence of the Lakurawas terrorist in the general area.
The airstrike achieved its primary objective of neutralizing the Lakurawa terrorist in there concentration area. The destruction of key infrastructure used by the terrorist including arms cache and logistics dumps confirmed strike’s effectiveness. The air strike on the terrorist arms cache and logistics dump led to other secondary explosions causing hoarded munitions to explode in different directions that resulted in 10 deaths. Efforts are ongoing to determine whether or not they were terrorist collaborators.
Meanwhile, locals of the area confirmed that Lakurawas terrorist stayed in the village and use the general areas as staging area for their operation. ISR and HUMINT reports prior to the operation consistently indicated the hideout was a high-concentration terrorist location.
Overall, troops will continue to take painstaking measures to avoid civilian casualties. All civilians casualties are viewed as a needless tragedy. Nevertheless, we will not relent in targeting and dislodging terrorist across our nation.
