Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), says the scale of the Sambisa Forest makes it harder for security forces to rescue people kidnapped by terrorists quickly. He says the terrain delays operations after abductions and allows suspects to evade capture by moving deeper into forest areas before detailed intelligence reaches troops.
Musa speaks on Channels Television’s Politics Today and describes Sambisa as “as big as Belgium,” arguing that it is not a small area like people often assume. He also links the difficulty of counter-terrorism operations to the forests and savannah stretching across parts of West Africa, and he says security forces conduct regular rescues.
Across the reports, outlets largely agree on Musa’s core points: Sambisa’s size slows tracking and interception, and it enables terrorists to vanish after kidnappings. They also repeat additional claims by Musa that security efforts sometimes disrupt terrorists’ supply lines, forcing them to abandon captives, and that ransom-related activity is monitored by Nigeria’s Central Bank. One outlet further contrasts the officially designated Sambisa Game Reserve size with a wider area often referred to as the Sambisa Forest.
