Different strokes for different folks!

While the British and Americans do all the talking it is Private Security Contractors from South Africa that have proved quietly decisive in helping the Nigerian military turn around its campaign against Boko Haram.

As others flap their jaws, it is the activities of a group of men that does not fit the standard image of an army of liberation who after just three months on the ground led by Colonel Eeben Barlow help end Boko Haram's six-long year reign of terror in northern Nigeria.

Eeben Barlow a former commander in the South African Defence Force and his group of bush warfare experts were recruited in top secrecy in January 2015 to train an elite strike group within Nigeria's disorganised and demoralised army.

Some of these bush warfare experts cut their teeth in South Africa's border wars 30 years ago and it was their formidable fighting skills – backed by their own helicopter pilots flying combat missions that proved decisive in helping the military turn around its campaign against Boko Haram in its north-eastern strongholds.

STTEP, which stands for Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection, is thought to have sent around 100 men to Nigeria, consisitng of those who previously served in elite South African units as well as others who fought as communist guerrillas against the South African Defence Force.

(Founded in 2006, STTEP has established itself as a dedicated, apolitical, highly professional, service-driven entity that supports both international - but primarily African governments and business entities. Client interface is done with an experienced team who possess skills have been developed in numerous African theatres and that are not readily available. These skills cover the ambit of statecraft, warfare, COIN, counter-terrorism, law enforcement, and intelligence.)

Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists have now fled many of the towns they once controlled, leading to the freeing of hundreds of girls and women last week who were used by Boko Haram as slaves and bush wives.

The role of Col Barlow's firm in turning around one of the most vicious African insurgencies of modern times has been kept largely quiet by Nigeria's outgoing president, Goodluck Jonathan, who lost elections to ex-general Muhammadu Buhari. Col Barlow discussed his company's role in a seminar at the Royal Danish Defence College, and in a separate interview with a Sofrep.com, a Special Forces website, he described in detail the "aggressive" strike force that was created to push Boko Haram onto the back foot.

“The campaign gathered good momentum and wrested much of the initiative from the enemy,” said Col Barlow, 62. “It was not uncommon for the strike force to be met by thousands of cheering locals once the enemy had been driven from an area.” He added: “Yes, many of us are no longer 20-year-olds, but with our age has come a knowledge of conflicts and wars in Africa that our younger generation employees have yet to learn, and a steady hand when things get rough.”

It is not known how much the Nigerian military has paid for STTEP's services. But the fact that the Nigerian government felt it necessary to bring them in raises questions about the level of help that it was receiving from the British and US militaries, who offered mentoring packages in the wake of Boko Haram's kidnapping last year of more than 200 schoolgirls from the north-eastern town of Chibok.

Describing Boko Haram as "a bunch of armed thugs who have used religion as the glue to hold their followers", Col Barlow said the initial plan was for his men to train up a team to help free the schoolgirls. However, as Boko Haram continued to run amok across northern Nigeria, massacring hundreds at a time in village raids, the plan turned to schooling Nigeria's largely traditional army in “unconventional mobile warfare”.

Key to this was a tactic known as "relentless pursuit", which involved mimicking Boko Haram's hit-and-run tactics with non-stop assaults. Once the insurgents were on the run and their likely route established, members of the strike force would be helicoptered into land ahead of them to cut off their likely escape routes, gradually exhausting them. The South Africans even used bush trackers to work out where their enemies were going, an old-fashioned art that proved vital in Boko Haram's forest hideouts. "Good trackers can tell the age of a track as well as indicate if the enemy is carrying heavy loads, the types of weapons he has, if the enemy is moving hurriedly, what he is eating, and so forth,” said Col Barlow.

While the Nigerian government has insisted the South Africans' role was mainly as "technical advisers", Col Barlow suggested his men had been involved in direct combat. His air power unit was “given ‘kill blocks’ to the front and flanks of the strike force and could conduct missions in those areas,” he said. His forces also helped with intelligence gathering, troop transportation and evacuation of casualties.

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