SA mercenaries in Nigeria
DAKAR/JOHANNESBURG – South African mercenaries have joined others from the former Soviet Union to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Rumours about the use of foreign “soldiers of fortune” against the Islamist militant group gained substance this month when pictures surfaced on Twitter showing armoured vehicles rumbling along a street in what was said to be Maiduguri, the regional capital of Nigeria’s Boko Haram-hit northeast.
In one photo that appeared on Twitter on March 6, a white man in a khaki T-shirt and body armour is shown beside a heavy-calibre machine gun on top of one of the sand-coloured vehicles as the column drives through the streets at dusk.
In confirming the presence of hundreds of foreign military contractors on the ground, security and diplomatic sources put the total much higher than the 100 or so previously reported.
Nigerian government spokesman Mike Omeri declined to comment, referring questions to military spokesman Chris Olukolade, who also declined to respond.
In an interview with Voice of America late on Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan said two companies were providing “trainers and technicians” to help Nigerian forces.
He did not name the firms, or the nationalities, or give numbers.
But a West African security source and a South African defence source said the foreign troops were linked to the bosses of former South African private military firm Executive Outcomes.
Executive Outcomes was best known for its involvement in Angola’s 1975 to 2002 civil war and against Revolutionary United Front rebels in an internal conflict in Sierra Leone in 1995.
It disbanded in 1998 under pressure from the government to curtail mercenary activities.
The West African security source said several hundred foreigners were involved in running major offensive operations against Boko Haram, and were being paid about $400 (R4 892) a day.
A South African defence contractor confirmed that ex-Executive Outcomes leaders were involved in the deployment.
One Abuja-based diplomat said the South Africans were backed by soldiers and hardware from the former Soviet Union in an alliance against Boko Haram.
“It’s an incoherent mix of people, helicopters and random kit from all sorts of different sources, but there is an element of internal cohesion from the Nigerian army, ” the diplomat said.
“It appears to be a desperate ploy to get some sort of tactical success up there in six weeks for the electoral boost, ” the diplomat added.
Nigeria is set to go to the polls on March 28.