5,000 Repentant Boko Haram Terrorists Reunited With Families

The National Counter Terrorism Centre in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has revealed that about 5,000 repented Boko Haram terrorists have been reunited with their families.

Head of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE), Amb. Mairo Musa Abba, who stated this at the second-day session of the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum in Maiduguri, Borno State, added that none of the ex-combatants returned to the battleground after undergoing six-month of deradicalisation programme.

Mairo, who spoke at the Third Panel session with the theme, “Managing Boko Haram Exits and Demobilization of Armed Groups,” said harmonised strategy would help the governors of Lake Chad region to address their common issues.

She said deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme for ex-Boko Haram fighters, known as Operation Safe Corridor, had reintegrated over 5,000 repented Boko Haram members into the society.

“Under Operation Safe Corridor programme, we have deradicalised over 5,000 ex-combatants of Boko Haram and reunited them with their families.

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“They are using the skills they have acquired in the six months of deradicalisation programme in the camp, to sustain themselves within the communities.

“Our collaborators from the National Orientation Agency (NOA) are within 774 local governments in Nigeria and traditional & religious leaders within the community they have monitoring mechanism where are able to monitor this mechanism and see their progress after the reintegration within the community,” she said.

She added that the “Borno Model”, a state-led strategy, which aimed at reintegrating individuals who left extremist groups like Boko Haram, had complemented the efforts of the federal government of Nigeria to promote peace in the country.

“We always said ‘Borno Model’ is a model of necessity but we have recorded a lot of success with the Model because many repented fighters, have been reunited with families,” she added.

She, however, called on the governors in the Lake Chad region and stakeholders to harmonise their strategies to ensure that they work on the same level.