FACT-CHECK: Defence Minister’s Claim That Sambisa Forest Is as Large as Belgium Is MISLEADING
BY: Peter Emmanuel
Claim
Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), claimed that Sambisa Forest is as large as Belgium while explaining the difficulties security forces face in locating terrorists and rescuing abducted persons.
Full Text
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Musa said:
“…because like I said, we have 923 square kilometres. So this government is overwhelmed. Sambisa Forest is as big as Belgium, as a country. So when people talk about this, they make it look as if it is one small football field and we are refusing to do anything. These places are massive areas.”
The Minister made the statement while discussing how terrorists and kidnappers exploit large forested areas to evade security forces after carrying out attacks.
The report which was reported by Punch Newspapers
Verification
DNN FactCheck examined the geographical size and location of Sambisa Forest and compared available figures with the size of Belgium.
According to a wildlife survey published through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Sambisa Game Reserve is located in the southern part of Borno State and occupies 518 square kilometres. The document states that the reserve lies between Gwoza and Bama Local Government Areas and was gazetted as a national reserve in 1977.
The figure of 518 square kilometres is also cited in geographical references describing Sambisa Forest. The forest is located in Borno State, about 60 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, the state capital.
However, the size attributed to Sambisa varies depending on the boundaries used. Historical records indicate that the Sambisa Game Reserve was previously described as covering about 2,258 square kilometres, while later records put the designated reserve at about 518 square kilometres. The variation is partly linked to the inclusion of surrounding forest areas in some descriptions.
This means Belgium is about 59 times larger than the 518-square-kilometre Sambisa Game Reserve. Even when the larger historical figure of 2,258 square kilometres is used, Belgium is still about 14 times larger.
Population figures also provide context but do not establish the population of Sambisa itself. Sambisa is a forest and game reserve rather than a standalone administrative state or local government area with an official population census.
Borno State, where the Sambisa Game Reserve is located, had a projected population of about 6.65 million in 2023, according to figures attributed to the National Population Commission. A 2024 demographic publication also gives the state’s 2023 projected population as 6,651,590.
There is therefore no basis for describing the population of Borno State as the population of Sambisa Forest. The two are geographically and administratively different.
The Minister’s reference to 923 square kilometres also requires caution. In the context of his statement, he mentioned the figure immediately before referring to Sambisa Forest, but he did not explicitly identify what the 923-square-kilometre figure represented. The documented 518-square-kilometre area of the Sambisa Game Reserve does not correspond to 923 square kilometres.
At the same time, recent reporting on the Minister’s statement notes that the term “Sambisa Forest” is sometimes used more broadly by officials, security agencies and the media to describe an extensive forested and savannah landscape associated with insurgency. Estimates for this wider area vary considerably, with some accounts placing it between 50,000 and 66,000 square kilometres.
If the Minister was referring to such a broader operational or geographical area rather than the designated Sambisa Game Reserve, that distinction was not made in his statement.
Verdict
MISLEADING
What We Found
DNN FactCheck found that the comparison between Sambisa Forest and Belgium depends on which geographical area is being called “Sambisa Forest.”
The Sambisa Game Reserve, for which a CITES-hosted wildlife survey gives an area of 518 square kilometres, is considerably smaller than Belgium’s 30,689 square kilometres.
Even the larger historical figure of 2,258 square kilometres remains substantially smaller than Belgium.
However, “Sambisa Forest” is sometimes used more broadly to refer to the wider forested and savannah terrain in northeastern Nigeria. Recent reporting on Musa’s statement says estimates for this broader area range from about 50,000 to 66,000 square kilometres. At an estimated 60,000 square kilometres, such a broader area would indeed be roughly twice the size of Belgium.
The problem is that the Minister did not define the boundaries of the area he was referring to or explain whether his comparison was based on the officially designated reserve or a wider forest landscape.
The 923-square-kilometre figure he mentioned also does not match the 518-square-kilometre area documented for the Sambisa Game Reserve.
Conclusion
The Defence Minister’s claim that Sambisa Forest is as large as Belgium is misleading.
The officially documented Sambisa Game Reserve is about 518 square kilometres, compared with Belgium’s 30,689 square kilometres. On that basis, Sambisa is nowhere near the size of Belgium.
However, broader descriptions of the Sambisa area cover a much larger landscape, and some estimates for that wider area exceed Belgium’s size. Because the Minister did not specify which geographical area he meant, his comparison lacks the precision needed to establish that the designated Sambisa Forest or Game Reserve is the same size as Belgium.
DNN FactCheck therefore rates the claim MISLEADING.
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