STTEP
STTEP International | |
---|---|
Founder | Eeben Barlow |
Type | Private Military Company |
Apartheid-era SADF personnel in a PMC that provides Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection (STTEP) |
In 2006, three South African Defence Force veterans founded the private military company STTEP International (Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection) to help fill the vacuum left by the departure of PMC Executive Outcomes in 1998.[1]
In May 2015, Chairman Eeben Barlow described how STTEP – cooperating with a South African security firm, Pilgrims Africa Ltd, based in Lagos – had assisted the Nigerian government in its fight against the Boko Haram insurgents:[2]
“The campaign gathered good momentum and wrested much of the initiative from the enemy,” said Colonel Barlow, 62. “It was not uncommon for the strike force to be met by thousands of cheering locals once the enemy had been driven from an area.”[3]