Operation Turus
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| Operation Turus | |
|---|---|
| Part of Boko Haram insurgency | |
 Nigerian troops during the Boko Haram Insurgency. | |
| Location | |
| Date | April 2014 – April 2024 |
| Executed by |  United Kingdom |
Operation Turus was the code name of the British military operation to assist Nigeria during the Boko Haram insurgency. It was launched in April 2014 by Prime Minister David Cameron in response to the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping which saw over a hundred schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, a jihadist terrorist organisation in northeastern Nigeria. Initial efforts were focused on the search for the missing schoolgirls, with the UK deploying military specialists, satellite imagery and reconnaissance aircraft from the Royal Air Force. According to a source quoted in The Observer, the UK successfully located the missing schoolgirls and offered to rescue them but this offer was rejected by the Nigerian government which considered it a national issue. Most of the schoolgirls remain missing.
From 2014, the UK shifted its focus towards training and supporting the Nigerian Armed Forces to help it counter violent extremists. In 2015, 350 British troops were deployed in the country to deliver a training programme. Training was provided by Short Term Training Teams (STTTs) which are typically rotated every six weeks. The operation ended in April 2024,[1] with British troops having delivered 25 training courses to over a thousand of their Nigerian counterparts over the course of its final year.[2]
Attacks on British citizens
From 2009, Boko Haram, a jihadist terrorist organisation based in northeastern Nigeria, waged an insurgency in an attempt to institute an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. By 2014, violent attacks perpetrated by the group had killed tens of thousands of people. A government crackdown ensued which saw a state of emergency declared in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.[3] Under pressure, Boko Haram was forced to retreat to rural, mountainous areas where they began to target civilians.[4] Their numbers were bolstered by Islamist militants fleeing from nearby Mali due to a French counter-insurgency operation there.[5][6]
In 2010, in opposition to Western education — which it claimed detracted from Islamic teachings — Boko Haram began to target schools. The group was known for targeting female students, which it believed should not be educated and instead used as cooks or sex slaves.[5]
In 2011, Boko Haram abducted a British citizen along with an Italian citizen in Birnin-Kebbi and threatened to execute them unless demands were met. The UK launched a rescue mission carried out by the special forces unit, the Special Boat Service. The rescue attempt failed, resulting in the execution of both hostages.[7][8] In another incident, Ansaru, an off-shoot of Boko Haram, kidnapped seven construction workers, including one Briton in February 2013. The hostages were executed preemptively in March after the captors mistakenly believed British military deployments in nearby Mali (which were in support of Operation Newcombe) were part of a rescue operation.[9][10]
In 2014, the group was blamed for 4,000 deaths and it received support from other Islamist terrorist organisations, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.[5][11]
Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping
On 14 April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from a secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria. In the days following, the Nigerian military announced most of the girls had been freed or had escaped, however parents claimed their children remained unaccounted for. Many parents ventured out to search for their children and claimed they saw no evidence of any military support. Major General Chris Olukolade subsequently admitted that the military's earlier statement was incorrect and that "more than 200" girls remained missing. Government inaction caused uproar in Nigeria, resulting in marches and a "#BringBackOurGirls" hashtag trend on social media. On 4 May, President Goodluck Jonathan made his first public comments on the abduction and announced the country was seeking assistance from the United States and other world powers in tackling Nigeria's "security challenge". British and American security experts subsequently arrived on 9 May.[12] In a phone call to President Jonathan, British Prime Minister David Cameron offered the UK's support in finding the missing schoolgirls.