The Defence Headquarters has set up Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD Centres for troops across the various theatres of operations.
According to the DHQ, the centres were established to checkmate the mental health of troops engaged in the ongoing fight against insecurity.
The established centres would complement the centres and efforts made by various services in the military to address cases of PTSD.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.Gen.Buba Edward noted that measures were in place to address PTSD among troops.
He said, “The military has set up Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Centres to address the issue of mental health occasioned by the exposure of troops to the war against insurgency.”
Blacktalker can report that there has been a rise in incidents of soldiers who took their own lives as well as their colleagues, most of which were attributed to PTSD.
On Tuesday, a soldier identified as CPL James Kingsley, attached to team 3 of Operations Hadrin Daji in Sokoto killed his colleague and went on a shooting spree against several others.
Kingsley was, however, gunned down by one of his colleagues while shooting sporadically at them.
On January 15, 2024, a personnel of the Nigerian Army identified as Boyi ThankGod killed himself.
ThankGod who is of the standby force and attached to the Headquarters of 35 Artillery Brigade in Abeokuta was said to have shot himself at a duty shade.
In March 2023, a soldier of the Nigerian army shot himself dead after killing three of his colleagues in the Rabah area of Sokoto.
Also, in November 2022, a Nigerian Army soldier shot and wounded a United Nations helicopter co-pilot, and killed a humanitarian worker and a fellow soldier at a military base in Borno.
PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events, or set of circumstances.