A typical Boko Haram/ISWAP member’s path frequently starts with recruitment, which might be forced or voluntarily. They serve as fighters or in non-combatant capacities after enlisting.
These organisations operate in forest encampments, where life fluctuates between times of extreme anarchy and times of relative stability. Many eventually quit the group as a result of unpleasant circumstances or a shift in their personal beliefs.
Operation Safe Corridor, the code name for Nigeria’s official rehabilitation program for terrorists who surrender, is usually what those who do so go through. Through it, more than 50,000 people are said to have turned themselves in to Nigerian authorities.
Surrendered terrorists, however, re-infiltrate Nigerian communities and evade the official rehabilitation program. Community members in northeastern Nigeria have observed a sharp increase in the number of Boko Haram/ISWAP defectors going back to their homes without finishing official rehabilitation programs.
Concerns regarding safety and security have been raised by this.
According to the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), 800 former Boko Haram fighters who turned themselves in to the military are presently being deradicalized in preparation for their eventual reintegration into society.
Chief of Defence Training and Operations Emeka Onumajuru revealed this information on Channels’ TV Morning Brief on Monday, February 10, 2024.
He stated that while 129,000 Boko Haram fighters have been arrested thus far, only 800 have been chosen to take part in the rehabilitation program.
“To get the numbers right, right now, we have about 129,000 surrendered Boko Haram members and their families.
“We are a professional army and when you are in combat and an opponent surrenders, then you take him and let the legal processes take its natural course.
“Right now, some of them are detention facilities, some of them are in Kainji, and there is a special court that goes through all of them.
“Those that were found culpable face the books and those that are going to be deradicalised go through the process and this takes about a year.”
According to the army chief, terrorists may be deradicalized and reintegrated into society in a year, despite what the general public believes.
“It’s possible because the deradicalisation is done by professionals. That one-year period is sufficient enough depending on the people handling the deradicalisation.
“The number taken in is not huge. As I said, we have 129,000 Boko Haram members and families. It doesn’t mean the 129,000 are going through the programme.
”The people going through the programme right now are about 800 — in batches. Those 800 are people that have been sieved through the entire legal process before they are now brought to the centre.
“The deradicalisation carried out by the Operation Safe Corridor is part of the non-kinetic. You cannot win an asymmetrical war with just a kinetic approach.”