The Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar, said the Nigerian military is leveraging its recent partnership with the United States to strengthen operations against Boko Haram and its splinter groups.

Speaking during a visit by a team of Defence Correspondents to Maiduguri, General Abubakar said the U.S. has shared significant intelligence that is helping troops to neutralise more terrorists.

He said: “A key point in this brief is that we are leveraging our current partnership with the United States. It is on the basis of credible and invaluable intelligence that we are working to bring this battle to a favourable conclusion in the shortest possible time.

“We get high-level intelligence, which has actually added impetus to the conduct of our operations. I am sure in the media space, you read that 40 terrorists have been taken out. This is because a lot of airstrikes and ground operations are going on in the hinterland, in the Sambisa Forest, and the entire Timbuktu Triangle.”

Abubakar said they had received marching orders to carry out intensive kinetic operations, noting that through these efforts the military had neutralised 54 key Boko Haram leaders, including Abu Fatima, who had a ₦100 million bounty on his head.

“We are seriously involved in what we call terrorist leaders’ decapitation operations,” he said.

“What this means is that we try to attack the command and control system of the adversary. We try to take out the key leaders. This will further weaken the decision-making circle of the terrorists over time because once the leadership is affected, the whole structure is almost gone.

“That is why intelligence is very important.”

The Theater Commander disclosed that in 2025 alone, no fewer than 16,000 Boko Haram suspects, along with their families, surrendered as a result of the sustained and overwhelming pressure mounted by the troops.

He said the development has not only improved the peace in the North East but has also enhanced the socioeconomic conditions of people.

“This is because when you keep the terrorists on the back foot, you ensure that citizens can sleep with both eyes closed,” General Abubakar said.

Speaking about some of the challenges troops face in the fight against terrorists in the North East, the theater commander said one major issue is the presence of collaborators, who also facilitate the terrorists’ supply of logistics. He added that the theater command is addressing the problem through an offensive called the “Logistics Strangulation Operation.”

He said: “This is to, as much as possible, tie the noose around the logistic chain of the terrorists. Because if they don’t have logistics, they cannot operate.”

“For instance in this month alone, through this operation, we have recovered over 10,000 petroleum products and lubricants from collaborators.”

Abubakar emphasises that the challenges posed by terrorist collaborators are so significant that they make achieving a quick victory against the terrorists more complex.

“Terrorists cannot survive without collaborators.

“So as we used to say, if you want to battle the insurgency, you need to separate the fish from the water, the population from the terrorists.

“And that is one major problem that we are trying to solve here by continual sensitization and stakeholder engagement,” the Theater Commander said. (The Nation)