Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived for a one-day working visit in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the birthplace of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
He addressed the troops deployed to the front line to fight the militants who are still terrorising large areas of the north-east.
His trip comes days after an attack on a military base in Metele, which resulted in the death of at least 40 soldiers.
His government and the military have come in for a huge amount of criticism since the attack.
The army took five days to confirm reports of the attack and disputed the death toll.
Mr Buhari, who faces re-election in February, came to power in 2015 promising to defeat the militants, which he subsequently said had been achieved.
On Saturday, he said he would close the “loopholes” that had allowed militants to attack the base on Sunday 18 November.