The landscape that stretches away from the indirect border separating northeastern Nigeria from Cameroon is arid, barren and very difficult to defend. Which is why Malo, a corporal in a Nigerian mobile police unit, and his fellow officers were glad to see a convoy of reinforcements unexpectedly show up where their patrol was resting earlier this month, near the border village of Gamboru. Then the reinforcements, which included army-issue armored cars and heavy-caliber weaponry, began shouting "Allahu Akbar!" and opened fire; 13 police officers were killed in the ambush, Malo told VOA in an exclusive interview.
 
Their bodies rotted in the hot sun for three days. The bogus reinforcements, he said, were Boko Haram militants. "These insurgents come armed with thousands of bullets, and we carry only 30," said Malo, a 14-year veteran officer who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid retribution from his superiors.

"You cannot get 60 bullets until you pay a bribe. How in the world can you fight someone who attacks you with thousands of bullets while you have only 30?" he asked.

In the convoy used by the attackers, Malo told VOA, were two armored vehicles mounted with high-caliber guns that had Nigerian army emblems on them - an indication they had been stolen or seized from a federal arsenal somewhere. The other vehicles were Toyota pickup trucks.

Some of the attackers also wore army-issue camouflage.

Malo said his unit, which is analogous to a rapid response tactical police team — has often gone hungry since being deployed five months ago to the northeastern state of Borno, whose capital is Maiduguri.

He said his police colleagues’ bodies rotted in the sun for three days because the state government refused to pay the required embalming fees to the local hospital.

Among rank-and-file officers, many feel that senior officers are purposely avoiding confronting Boko Haram militants head-on so they can skim off the increasing funding, and supplies, for their own purposes.

Malo said he gets paid the equivalent of about $200 a month, a minuscule sum given rising prices and the fact that he’s working to battle a violent insurgency.

"It is a big joke to invite the world to come and fight for us. We have the necessary gear to fight this battle, but we are not being given the tools," he said. ”How do you want us to fight them? With our bare hands?

"For goodness sake, how can a hungry policeman arrest anyone, I ask you?" he added.

"My suggestion is to find intermediaries whom would facilitate negotiations between the government and the opposition, and any other resource that would help to bring an end to this problem," he told VOA.

But Malo said more help is needed on the front line.

"The dead have no problem," he said."”It is the living who are suffering. Let them give us sufficient weapons and they would see what would happen."