Reports reaching Newsdiaryonline.com said that the international media’s focused solely on the effort’s of France in Mali appears to be under reporting the instant impact Nigerian troops have recorded on arrival in the embattled country.Highly informed sources said Nigerian fighter jets swung into action as early as Wednesday and they have been pounding rebel positions in Northern Mali,which is believed to be sector allocated to Nigerian troops.
Reliable sources said Nigerian air support unit is in Mali with Alpha jets and F6 jets,which are said to be some kind of multi-purpose jets.There has been a large number of mechanized infantry vehicles deployed by Nigerians .Equally ,the armoured corps is believed to be with French made Pan Hard Armoured vehicles equipped with 40mm and 60mm guns.
The defence headquarters confirmed on Tuesday that Nigerian troops would be in Mali within 24 hours.They would join the advance technical team already on the ground.900 Nigerian troops are expected in Mali in due course but some officials said the total may in fact be 1200 if the support units are ultimately added to the number.An initial 190 troops will be deployed.