Benin sends 150 soldiers to fight Boko Haram

– Nigeria’s neighbour Benin is sending 150 soldiers to fight Boko Haram  
– The soldiers will serve in the Multinational Join Task Force as a reserve force  
– Benin’s defence minister has pledged to send more troops to the unit in future

The Republic of Benin has announced that it is dispatching 150 soldiers to join the anti-Boko Haram Multinational Joint Task Force (MNTJF). The troops from Benin will act as a reserve rapid intervention force and are the last from the five countries involved in the African Union-led force to be deployed. “The Benin Republic has announced its readiness to deploy 150 military troops to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) … next month,” the MNJTF public relations officer Colonel Mohammad Dole said. Share on Face

The Commander of MNJTF, Major General Lamidi Adeosun, was in the Benin Republic recently where he met with the country’s defence minister and chief of the army. According to some sources, the soldiers are expected to perform garrison duties, escort missions, provide security to
humanitarian operations, protection of VIPs and serve as reserve force for quick intervention when necessary. The Beninese defence minister Denis Ali Yerima apologized for the delay in dispatching his country’s soldiers to the MNJTF.  “The initial delay was due to some logistics and equipment challenges which were recently provided,” Yerima said. “The first batch of 150 military personnel will be deployed in Ndjamena, HQ MNJTF before the end of April 2016, while the remaining batches will be airlifted subsequently to meet up with 750 troops expected from the Benin Republic.”

Benin pledge to release more soldiers to the MNJTF

The 9,000-strong MNJTF already includes troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon and became operational last year. Security experts say that many of the soldiers are drawn from national armies already fighting Boko Haram, however, and do not therefore increase the total number of troops.