Defence Headquarters denies 1,000 soldiers killed by Boko Haram buried secretly

BY OUR EDITOR

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said it is dismayed over a news report that the Nigerian Military maintains secret graveyards in the North East theatre of operation.

A statement on Thursday from the Defence spokesman, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, said, “This insinuation can only emanate from an uninformed position of the author of the said publication.”

He reiterated that it was necessary to inform the public that the Armed Forces of Nigeria has a rich and solemn tradition for the interment of our fallen heroes.

He said, “Therefore, it must be unambiguously clarified that the Armed Forces of Nigeria does not indulge in secret burials, as it is sacrilegious and profanity to extant ethos and traditions of the Nigerian military.”

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Nigerian Army has a secret cemetery where soldiers killed in the battle to rid Nigeria of Boko Haram terrorist are buried.

The report written by Joe Parkinson said the secret cemetery at the Maimalari barracks grows.

“Several of my comrades were buried in unmarked graves at night,” said a soldier from the Maimalari barracks, where more than 1,000 soldiers are based.

He added: “They are dying and being deleted from history.”

The secret graveyard at Maimalari isn’t the only one in Nigeria’s troubled north east, the senior government official said.

Excerpt from the report reads: “The reality is that Africa’s largest land force—a U.S. counterterrorism ally—is struggling against an insurgency that first flared a decade ago and is now rejuvenated by Islamic State and the return of fighters from Libya, Syria and Iraq.

“The insurgents now control hundreds of square miles of territory across four countries around the Lake Chad basin, a crossroads of Africa where the U.S., U.K. and French militaries have bases or provide special-forces training.

“On Sunday, gunmen attacked a funeral on the outskirts of Maiduguri, killing at least 65 people, according to government officials.

‘This group is one of the most effective, if not the most effective Islamic State contingent at the moment,’ said Site Intelligence, a terrorism-monitoring group.

“Nigeria’s government last summer stopped reporting the deaths of soldiers in its fight with Boko Haram insurgents and a splinter group that calls itself Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP.

“Mr. Buhari was re-elected in February after a security-focused campaign in which he repeated that the Islamist insurgencies in Nigeria had been ‘technically defeated.’

“But the sprawling secret graveyard in Maiduguri and an official cemetery at the base, the operational command for the north eastern front in Borno State, now hold the bodies of at least 1,000 soldiers killed since the terror groups began an offensive last summer, according to soldiers and military officials—some of whom estimated a far higher death toll.

“The Nigerian military and the presidency didn’t respond to requests for comment on the war, casualties and the secret cemeteries.

• Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/08/several-of-my-comrades-were-buried-at-night-in-secret-cemetery-soldier/