Insecurity: No going back on usage of non-kinetic approach – Defence chief

 The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, says the military has not contemplated scrapping the non-kinetic approach as part of the efforts being used to solve insecurity challenges.

Specifically, he said the military has up-scaled the use of hard and soft power in counter-insurgency operations to contain the emerging and changing nature of adversaries across the country.

The Defence Chief stated this in Abuja on Monday when he delivered a lecture titled: “Non-Kinetic Operations and the Nigerian Armed Forces”.

The lecture was at the opening session of a national security course on “Psychological Operations and Strategic Communication (PSYOPS)”organised by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) with the theme, “Winning Hearts and Minds for National Cohesion and Development”.

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Gen. Musa, who was represented by Rear Adm. Daupreye Matthew, Director of Training, Defence Headquarters, said that the use of non-kinetic efforts under Operation Safe Corridor had led to the surrender of more than 2,000 Boko Haran members between 2016 and 2017.

According to him, 67 per cent of those who surrendered were of the Abubakar Shekau faction of the insurgents, adding that 1,543 repentant terrorists graduated from Mallam Sidi Camp in Gombe State and 1,935 were released from Bulumkutu camp in Borno between 2016 and 2022.

He stated that from July 2021 to May 4, 2022 alone, no fewer than 51,828 terrorists and their family members surrendered, out of which 13,360 were fighters, stressing that 106,000 terrorists and their family members had so far surrendered in the North East.

Earlier, the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI), Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Undiandeye, said that the five-day programme was to boost security experts’ understanding of the dynamics of psychological operations and strategic communication.