DHQ reveals ongoing deradicalisation of 800 ex-Boko Haram fighters

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has disclosed that 800 former Boko Haram members who voluntarily surrendered to the Nigerian military are currently undergoing deradicalisation as part of efforts to reintegrate them into society.

Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, the Chief of Defence, Operations, Maj.-Gen. Emeka Onumajuru, highlighted that the rehabilitation program, tagged Operation Safe Corridor, involves a structured one-year reorientation process.

Maj.-Gen. Onumajuru emphasized that despite the arrest of about 129,000 Boko Haram fighters to date, only 800 were carefully selected for the deradicalisation and reintegration initiative.

The program aims to transform former insurgents into law-abiding citizens while fostering peace in affected regions.

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Maj-Gen Onumajuru said, “To get the numbers right, right now, (we have) about 129,000 surrendered BH (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.”

Asked whether it was possible to deradicalise terrorists and reintegrate them into the society in one year, the top military officer said, “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 BH 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.”

He stressed that kinetic and non-kinetic strategies must go hand-in-hand for Nigeria to win the asymmetric warfare against insurgents.

“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,” he said.