The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai has disclosed that “dilapidated inaccessible roads” fuels Boko Haram insurgency with loss of man hours in Borno state. The affected roads are in border areas of Niger and Cameroon, including Lake Chad region, which is only accessible by air for ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast. Buratai raised the alert on Wednesday in Monguno, while briefing reporters on the challenges of bad roads to end Boko Haram insurgency. According to him, with accessible standard roads, troops can quickly respond to any terrorists’ activities that had claimed many lives and property. His words: “We have plied the 270-kilometre Damasak-Gudumbali-Kukawa-Monguno road yesterday (Tuesday) for four hours. If the road was good, it takes only two hours to reach Monguno, instead of four. “This was why we spent four hours on that bad road to reach Monguno by 11pm, instead of 9pm yesterday night. “By the time communities alerted our troops of any attack or infiltration of insurgents, two hours had be wasted, while the damage to lives and property had been done by Boko Haram insurgents along the road.” Such roads, according to him, include Dikwa-Gambouru, Maiduguri-Monguno, Maiduguri-Bama-Gwoza and Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu roads. He further disclosed that the five roads cover a total distance of 783 kilometres, along which the recent attacks occurred with the loss of many lives and property. He said the Federal and Borno State governments should “intervene and fix” all the dilapidated roads that link several communities for the ongoing military operations. He lamented that because of the poor state of roads, 50 per cent of troops’ insurgency response time, is being delayed and wasted to save people’s lives and property. “The security and territorial integrity of this nation, against insurgents and any other external aggressors are the business of everyone, particularly the infrastructural road facilities of governments that are critical in fighting this war. “Over 50 per cent of the challenges of ending this war, relies on standard accessible roads that could move our troops and equipment very fast to end this counter-insurgency operations,” said Buratai at the 242 Recce Battalion, Monguno.
