Maiduguri (Nigeria)(News Of The South) – Wives of the military in the restive town of Maiduguri took to the streets this week burning tyres in a bid to prevent their husbands from being sent to fight Boko Haram.
An estimated 300 women and 500 children have been gathered at the gates of a military base in Borno state capital where they have been claiming their husbands were ill equipped to take on the Islamist militants.
Boko Haram has been waging a brutal insurgency since 2009 which has left thousands of people dead, despite a state of emergency imposed in three northeast states since May 2013 and a troop surge.
The soldiers stationed in Maiduguri were due to retake the town of Gwoza, which Boko Haram overran last week after killing dozens and sending hundreds more fleeing.
“No weapons for our husbands, no trip to Gwoza or any volatile place. We are tired of burying our loved ones,” Thabita John, one of the protesting wives, said on Monday.
She added that the soldiers were “ill-equipped to fight the dreaded Boko Haram”.
Another soldier’s wife, Rahina Ali, added: “Our husbands are always given inferior weapons while the Boko Haram have superior weapons.”
Government spokesman Mike Omeri dismissed the protest on Tuesday, saying troops were adequately equipped.
“The army officers’ wives are not professionals to know the capacity of guns and weapons that they are carrying,” Omeri told reporters in the capital, Abuja.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of a state of emergency in Borno and neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa initially saw Boko Haram pushed out of urban centres.
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