Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has highlighted the enormous scale of Sambisa Forest as a major obstacle in the fight against terrorism, describing it as “as big as Belgium.”
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Musa explained that the vast terrain allows terrorists to evade capture after abductions, often disappearing into forests before security agencies receive intelligence.
“These places are massive areas. Sambisa Forest is as big as Belgium, as a country. People make it look like it’s one small football field, but it’s not. That’s why operations are difficult,” he said.
Musa noted that security forces have been rescuing abducted victims regularly, but the sheer size of the forests stretching from Burkina Faso through Benin Republic into Nigeria makes tracking terrorists complex and time-consuming.
He added that in recent operations, troops blocked terrorists’ access to supplies, forcing them to abandon captives.
He also revealed that ransom payments are being monitored by the Central Bank of Nigeria to trace criminal networks.
The minister further cautioned governors against distributing motorcycles as palliatives, warning that such vehicles often end up in the hands of terrorists, giving them mobility advantages.
While the officially designated Sambisa Game Reserve covers about 518 square kilometres, Nigerian officials often use “Sambisa Forest” to describe a much larger area of forest and savannah terrain in the North-East, estimated at 50,000–66,000 square kilometres, roughly twice the size of Belgium.
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