Nigerian UNAMID troops in Darfur, Sudan
The first pattern of desert camouflage used by the Nigerian Army, it was first used for AMIS operations in The Sudan. During the July 2009 uprising by Boko Haram which was put down by the Nigerian Army, troops flown in from the 3 Armoured Division HQ Garrison in Jos and from the 13 Brigade in Calabar who formed the core assault group for that operation were flown into Maiduguri dressed up in desert camo and with six Panhard VBL scout cars in tow.
Thereafter and following on the extensive usage of green camouflage by ethnic militiamen in the Jos Conflict, troops of the Special Task Force adopted the shade of desert camo seen above as standard issue for their operations.
Popularised by the Joint Security Task Force and the Quick Response Group on CTCOIN operations, this shade of desert camouflage tinged with green became popular after the formation of both CTCOIN units in the latter months of 2011. It is now the most widely deployed shade of desert camouflage by the Nigerian Army.
Mali-bound troops conduct final checks in the shadow of a Nigerian Air Force C130-H30 at Kaduna
Like a bolt out of the blue, the commencement of deployment to Mali by the Nigerian Army in January 2013 was marked with the launch of yet another shade of desert camouflage which had not be used in any theatre of operations.
L-R: Major General Kenneth Osuji, Ag. Commander, Nigerian Army Corps of Infantry, Major General John Zaruwa, Commandant Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Centre and Lieutenant General Onyeabo Ihejirika, Chief of Army Staff, 17 January 2013.
(PHOTO CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
This design worn by General Zaruwa was also seen at the time when the deployment to Mali commenced but yours truly saw this for the first time during the BH uprising of 2009.
Those are the four patterns of desert camo which we have spotted thus far
General Beeg, Can I get your e-mail address, I have some infos to share with you
Marshal Hussein, I salute you again. I did send it last time but did not get to hear from. Eagerly waiting to read your email. “We sabi who be who”
beegeaglesblog@ovi.com
Seeing the COAS and Maj Gen Zaruwa in different patterns of desert rigs highlights dysfunction in the system even at the basic levels.
Thank you. sir !
Maybe I might be colour blind, but I don’t see any difference in the shade of desert fatigues between that donned by Maj Gen Zaruwa in the fourth picture and that donned by the chaps loading the C-130.
The camo worn by General Zaruwa is practically plain. It is absolutely different from that which the troops wore when they flew out to Mali
This is more or less what Zaruwa has on and it was first seen(above) during the crackdown which followed the BH uprising of 2009
The one worn by Maj Gen Zaruwa is a variant of the American desert camouflage. It was supplied to the NA when it had kitting issues in UNAMID around 07/08. The camouflage donned by troops in the first picture is the british camoflage. It was also supplied to support nigeria’s logistical requirements for ops in Sudan as the first set of instructors at NAPKC were brits. The other camouflages are naija made/contracted.
The first is the desert version of the British DPM used extensively by the Brits before switching to the current multicam. A friend of mine was issued the same during his deployment to Sudan. ‘really nice.
The 2nd is equally used extensively over here in the restive NE. ‘really nice and practical. The brain behind its design got it right.
The second one looks like it was made in China. BossJoe once showed up proof using a link from Ebay…exact replica.
@Doctore is right. What is the purpose of a Uniform ? Shouldn’t it project unity of purpose, and oneness in comand ?
In nigeria, our issues emmanate from the policy and organizational level. And while I love our new kit or the 20 versions of it, even this progress exposes our systemic disorganization.
It’s a mere symptom of the same old nigerian problem.
Our generals, should please humble themselves, and pay attention to the US offer to help us with intelligence fusion. One has to have stable well run organisations, to be able to collect,store and organize information.
It is this organized fusion of information, that makes it actionable intelligence.
I am sure, I ‘ll be told, that I am reading way too much into our un-uniform, uniform situation.
Personally I think d purpose of a camo shud be for d troops to blend into the environment without being easily spotted; so I think the camos shud be different for different spheres of operation,issues shud be raised wen we see gen. Osuji dressed like dat in maiduguri or gen. Zaruwa dressed like dat in ohafia, dats wat most of the soldiers I saw at ohafia were wearin anyways n it got me wandering