File photo: Defence Minister, Christopher Musa
The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has defended the government’s efforts to combat insecurity, saying the vast size of areas occupied by terrorists makes rescue operations challenging.
Musa, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, said security forces were rescuing abducted victims regularly but often had to contend with terrorists disappearing into vast forests before troops could locate them.
He said the Sambisa Forest was as large as Belgium, arguing that the scale of the terrain made security operations more difficult.
“Few ones now, efforts have been made. If you notice, on a daily basis now, we are really getting, rescuing a lot of them. Yeah, because, like I said, we have 923 square kilometres. So this government is overwhelmed. Sambisa Forest is as big as Belgium, as a country. So when people talk about this, they make it look as if it is one small football field and we are refusing to do anything,” he said.
