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DHQ establishes PTSD centres for battlefield soldiers
The Defence Headquarters stated that it had established post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) centres for personnel in several theatres of operation.
According to the DHQ, the clinics were formed to monitor the mental health of troops involved in the ongoing battle against insecurity.
The newly formed institutes will supplement existing centres and efforts by the military services to manage cases of PTSD.
In a conversation with journalist on Friday, Maj.Gen. Babu Edward, the Director of Defence Media Operations, confirmed the Sokoto event and stated that steps were in place to handle PTSD among troops.
He said, “Indeed, the incident occurred. 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.”
It has been discovered that there has been an increase in the number of troops who have committed suicide, as well as their coworkers, with the majority of these deaths being related to PTSD.
PTSD is a psychiatric illness that can develop in people who have encountered or witnessed a traumatic event, sequence of events, or set of circumstances.
On Tuesday, CPL James Kingsley, a soldier assigned to Team 3 of Operations Hadrin Daji in Sokoto, killed a colleague and proceeded on a shooting spree against several others.
Kingsley, on the other hand, was killed by one of his comrades while shooting sporadically at them.
Thank God, a member of the standby force stationed at the headquarters of the 35th Artillery Brigade in Abeokuta, is believed to have shot himself at a duty shade.
In March 2023, a Nigerian army soldier committed suicide after killing three of his colleagues in Rabah, Sokoto.
In November 2022, a Nigerian Army soldier shot and wounded a United Nations helicopter co-pilot while also killing a humanitarian worker and a fellow soldier at a Borno military post.
According to the DHQ, the increase in such cases necessitated the creation of the PTSD Centre.
