“Our equipment doesn’t work & we get just 60 bullets”: Nigerian soldier fighting Boko Haram opens up

“Our equipment doesn’t work & we get just 60 bullets”: Nigerian soldier fighting Boko Haram opens up



A Nigerian soldier has granted an interview to Sky News emphasising the claim which has been making the rounds that soldiers in the army do not have sufficient equipment to take on the terrorists.

The soldier who spoke anonymously, said that even the weapons which they have are old, worn down and ineffective.

“If my superiors know I have spoken to you, I will be jailed and tortured,” he said.

According to Sky News:

He described an army which is haemorrhaging morale and which lacks the will or the means to take on the terrorists.

He said his views reflected the feelings felt throughout the army about the war on terror in Nigeria’s northeast.

“They give us just AK47s to go into the bush to fight Boko Haram,” he told us.

“Our equipment doesn’t work and they give us just two magazines (60 bullets) to go into the bush.”

He went on to say many soldiers were complaining about not receiving their allowances and being made to wait weeks, sometimes months, for salaries to be paid.

People attend a protest calling for the release of abducted schoolgirls from the remote town of Chibok in Abuja People attend a protest in Abuja calling for the release of the schoolgirls

“It’s not right,” he said.

“We feel so bad because we … are trying, the soldiers are trying our best but the civilians don’t realise what the Nigerian army is issued with, what they are given to go and fight the Boko Haram.

“They don’t know the calibre of the weapons that the Nigerian army is giving them.

“The calibre of the Boko Haram weapons is past (better) than the Nigerian army weapon.”