Abuja-Kaduna highway: Air force launches joint rescue operation

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, has inaugurated special training programme code-named, Exercise Taimako Yazo, for its special forces – the Combat Search and Rescue team and the Air Police K-9 to effectively combat insecurity along the Kaduna-Abuja road and other places.

The exercise demonstration which took place at Rijana village, along the highway, is expected to help address security challenges along that axis.

The phrase, ‘Taimako Yazo’ in Hausa language, literally means ‘help has come’.

Abubakar, while inaugurating the exercise, said the overall desire of the Nigerian Air Force was to ensure that the personnel were trained and equipped to maintain a high level of combat readiness and operational effectiveness.

He said the programme would ensure that the personnel were always at top physical fitness level to be able to execute any mission successfully.

“The exercise, which is based on a Combat Search and Rescue situation, was designed to exercise the capacity of our personnel to rescue downed aircrew that have had to eject or abandon their aircraft in emergency situations,” he said.

Earlier in his address, the Air Officer Commanding, Special Operations Command, Air Vice Marshal Charles Ohwo, said the objective of the exercise was to rehearse the tactics, doctrine and synergy amongst first responders for effective CSAR operations of downed aircrew or other NAF personnel.

It would be recalled that in 2019, the Nigerian Air Force conducted a number of counter-terrorism operations in Kaduna, Kano, Niger and Osun states in a bid to further develop the capacity of NAF Special Operations Force to respond to the various security challenges.