Nigerian Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru Abubakar inspects a T129 Atak helicopter during a visit to Katsina on 18 November 2024. (Nigerian Air Force)
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has deployed two of its new Turkish Aerospace T129 Atak helicopters to a new base at Katsina's Umar Musa Yaradua Airport, it was revealed on 18 November when Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru Abubakar visited the facility.
The two helicopters, two Alpha Jets, and two King Airs were seen in media coverage of the visit that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said was to the Air Component of Sector 2 of Operation ‘Fansan Yamma', which was recently established to counter criminal gangs in the northwest of Nigeria.
Abubakar told journalists at the base that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had also been deployed, although these were not displayed.
The MoD identified the facility as the NAF's 213 Forward Operating Base (FOB) when Abubakar visited it in June while it was being used to support the now-superseded Operation ‘Hadarin Daji', although no aircraft were shown at that time.
In his latest tour of the northwest, Abubakar also visited Sokoto International Airport, 267 km to the west, where he said an annex is being established and some aircraft involved in ‘Fansan Yamma' will be based. “One of the platforms is here and we will bring some more as promised,” he said.
The NAF previously did not have a base capable of supporting aircraft in Nigeria's four northwestern states, with the closest being at Kaduna, 270 km south of the new FOB in Katsina and 355 km southeast of Sokoto International Airport.
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