6 Established 1961 International Tuesday, August 31, 2021 Nigeria’s troubled exit path for now repentant jihadists ‘We’re trapped’, say rehabilitated Boko Haram fighters

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Gaunt men sit in the shade The United States, European Union and Britain have sewing hats while women in headscarves cook leaves, given millions of dollars to help the program, which is watching children play as the dry wind blows through supported by the UN’s International Organization for the thatched huts. It’s a typical scene in the sprawling Migration (IOM) among others. camps set up for over two million people who have fled jihadists waging war in northeast Nigeria-and where ‘Mistakenly’ detained Aliyu, Abubakar, Muhammad and Mallam now also live. Nigeria’s armed forces coordinate the scheme, according to official documentation, with support from 17 groups including government departments, UN agencies and NGOs. “Operation Safe Corridor has De-radicalization recorded tremendous successes,” its head, Brigadier General Mohammed Maina, said early last month in program targets written responses to AFP’s questions. “Over 800 repentant ex-combatants have been suc- the wrong people? cessfully deradicalized, rehabilitated and reintegrated.” Many more could soon be eligible. The army said earlier this month that 335 fighters who recently surrendered were “undergoing comprehensive security profiling.” But the desolate site is a far cry from where these Yet the four men who participated in Operation Safe four men had expected to end up after completing a Corridor and were interviewed by AFP earlier this year government program to de-radicalize and rehabilitate gave a stark account of their experiences. Once in cus- Boko Haram fighters. The years since entering the cus- tody, they were held without charge in brutal conditions tody of the authorities-time mostly spent in overcrowd- for several years before even reaching the rehabilitation MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: In this file photograph taken on March 29, 2021, a woman cooks at Yawuri informal camp on the ed and filthy cells-have been traumatic, the men say. scheme, they said. outskirts of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state. The makeshift camp hosts nearly 2,000 people internally displaced by a Now left to live in dusty camps with no jobs in sight, And two of them, Abubakar and Mallam, said they decade-long jihadist insurgency in northeast Nigeria. — AFP they say the government has not delivered the fresh were farmers-not former insurgents-who were wrongly start promised. The de-radicalization program has also detained along with many other civilians, including chil- Maina denied that civilians were being sucked into extremists arrived, everything changed. “My income targeted the wrong people, with participants saying dren. The individual stories of the four men could not be the program, saying: “Ex-combatants are chosen after started reducing because they would take our crops... that many civilians, rather than fighters, end up in the independently verified. But several reports including by thorough profiling and investigation.” Complicating even the food we prepared,” said the father of three. hands of the military. Over more than a decade, Boko the US Agency for International Development (USAID), matters further, a source with extensive knowledge of “They were watching, monitoring us... we were Haram jihadists, along with combatants from dissident International Crisis Group and Amnesty International the program who spoke on condition of anonymity said trapped. There was no other way, they had guns.” offshoot the Islamic State West Africa Province have extensively detailed similar claims based on hun- that several dozen disengaged senior insurgents, includ- Mallam, 52, farmed peas, guinea corn and beans in a (ISWAP), have killed at least 40,000 people. dreds of interviews with others who have completed the ing commanders, had also passed through the de-radi- different village in Borno. When Boko Haram arrived In response, Nigeria has launched military offensives program and officials. calization center, under a different scheme. there too, the men were told to grow beards and women and introduced Operation Safe Corridor in 2016 — a In a report this year, Crisis Group said it had spoken forced to stay indoors. He said he once received 80 program that would offer an exit route to militants will- to 23 people who had been through the scheme. “At ‘We were trapped’ lashes because he bought cigarettes. Both farmers ing to lay down their arms and embrace peace. Fighters most” a quarter of those at the rehabilitation center with Abubakar, 48, said he earned a decent living as a decided to escape with their families. “We left in the officially are first screened and those deemed low risk them were “low-level but committed jihadist recruits,” it farmer until Boko Haram fighters took control of his vil- middle of the night... There were about 100 of us,” said are transferred to a center in Mallam Sidi, a town in said. “Most of the others... are civilians who fled areas lage in northeastern Borno state. AFP is not identifying Abubakar, who had heard on the radio that the govern- northeastern Gombe state. For six months, they are sup- controlled by Boko Haram and whom authorities then specific locations or dates in this story to protect the ment was urging civilians to leave Boko Haram-occu- posed to undergo vocational training, religious and mistakenly categorized as jihadists and detained before participants’ identity. All four of their names have also pied areas. Despite fearing capture by the insurgents, basic education and receive psychosocial counseling. sending them into Safe Corridor,” the report said. been changed. But, Abubakar said, when the Islamist they felt they had little choice. — AFP Mexico puts firearm Buhari urges unity flows high on after massacres agenda with US

in flashpoint city MEXICO CITY: Long under pressure to curb drug smuggling, Mexico is seeking to hold the United LAGOS: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari States partly responsible for rampant cartel-related has called for communities to unite to ease ten- violence by suing US-based gunmakers over illegal sions after violence in a flashpoint central city firearms trafficking. The lawsuit filed in a Boston killed dozens of people. Jos, in Plateau State, has court is part of the Latin American nation’s efforts to in the past suffered from clashes between Muslim put the issue of cross-border weapons flows at the and Christian communities, although local officials heart of the diplomatic conversation between the say recent attacks are the work of criminals rather neighbors, experts say. “Mexico is really managing to than religious violence. say that this is a bilateral problem,” said Cecilia At least 23 Muslim travellers were killed earlier Farfan, an expert on organized crime and US-Mexico NEW YORK: A young boy waves a Palestinian flag as people demonstrate in support of Palestinians inside Grand this month when their bus convoy was attacked security cooperation at the University of California, Central Station in New York Sunday. — AFP outside Jos. Police had blamed a suspected San Diego. “In the same way that the United States is Christian militia. Just over a week later, gunmen saying, ‘I need you to do something about illegal drug descended on a predominantly Christian village requested anonymity. The Gantz-Abbas meeting trafficking,’ Mexico is saying, ‘I need you to do some- on the outskirts of the city, shooting dead at least Abbas meets Zionist included the head of the Zionist military branch thing about guns,’” she said. 18 people and setting homes on fire. responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, The suit filed in early August accuses major gun- “The Presidency wishes to assure all citizens defense minister Ghasan Alyan, senior PA official Hussein Al Sheikh and makers including Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Colt, that as a government, the administration is on top Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj. Glock, Century Arms, Ruger and Barrett over firearms of events and is moving ahead with force to crush Gantz’s office said he and Abbas had held “a one- trafficking that Mexico blames for fueling cartel-relat- the perpetrators,” a statement from Buhari’s office for ‘rare talks’ on-one meeting” after the broader talks. Al Sheikh ed bloodshed. Between 70 and 90 percent of all said late on Sunday. “But to achieve success, our confirmed the meeting on Twitter but the PA was not weapons recovered from crime scenes in Mexico were immediately available to comment on its substance. smuggled in from the United States, Mexico’s foreign communities must unite against these horrific RAMALLAH: Zionist defense minister has met ministry says. They include Barrett semi-automatic attacks. Retributive violence is not the answer.” Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for a rare high- Palestinian division rifles, Smith & Wesson pistols and Ruger and Colt Plateau State officials put Jos city and its sur- level meeting, but a source close to Prime Minister Bennett’s government has indicated a desire to rifles recovered after an attack on Mexico City police roundings under a 24-hour curfew as a security Naftali Bennett insisted yesterday his government had boost the PA amid concern over a fresh conflict with chief Omar Garcia Harfuch in June 2020, according to measure. That was relaxed to a 6pm to 6am cur- no plans to reboot peace talks. Defense Minister few on Monday, an AFP reporter in the city said. Hamas who control Zionist-blockaded Gaza and are the lawsuit. Benny Gantz met Abbas in Ramallah for what were rivals of Abbas’s Fatah secular Fatah movement. An 11- Both Fulani Muslim leaders and Christian reportedly the first direct talks between a Zionist cabi- day conflict in May between Zionist forces and ‘Symbolic and political’ Irigwe representatives denied their communities net member and the 86-year-old Palestinian leader in Palestinians in Gaza marked the worst hostilities in the The litigation seeks compensation for the damage were involved in tit-for-tat attacks. Buhari, a for- several years. area since 2014 and unrest has persisted despite an caused by the firms’ alleged “negligent practices,” as mer soldier first elected in 2015, is under fire from The meeting, which Gantz’s office said focused on Egypt-brokered ceasefire. well as the implementation of adequate standards to opponents over a surge in insecurity in Africa’s “security policy, civilian and economic issues”, came Hamas condemned the Abbas-Gantz meeting, “monitor and discipline” arms dealers. Although it is most populous nation. just hours after Bennett returned from Washington charging that it “deepens Palestinian political division”. unclear if the suit will succeed, “the objective is sym- Nigerian troops are battling a 12-year jihadist where he met US President Joe Biden. Biden said he Abbas has tightened his hold over the PA since his bolic and political to open the debate,” said Romain le insurgency in the northeast that has killed more would urge Bennett to find ways “to advance peace election in 2006. He cancelled elections set for May Cour, an expert at the consultancy firm Noria than 40,000 and forced over 2 million more from and security and prosperity for Zionists and and July that would have been the first Palestinian polls Research. their homes.Parts of northwest and central Palestinians.” According to a Jewish defense ministry in 15 years. The veteran leader cited Zionists’ refusal to Mexico has seen more than 300,000 murders, most Nigeria have long struggled with clashes statement, Gantz told Abbas that Zionists “seek to take allow voting in annexed east Jerusalem, which of them blamed on criminal gangs, since the govern- between nomadic herders and local farmers over measures that will strengthen the PA’s economy.” Palestinians as their future capital. But some ment of then-president Felipe Calderon deployed the water and land. But violence in those regions has “They also discussed shaping the security and eco- Palestinian experts said Abbas balked when it seemed military in the war on drugs in 2006. escalated with increasing attacks from heavily nomic situations in the West Bank and in Gaza,” and clear Hamas was poised to rout Fatah at the polls. Many weapons reach Mexico from the United armed criminal gangs who raid and ransack vil- agreed to “continue communicating further,” it added. Abbas’s PA has also come under mounting global criti- States through small-scale shipments known as “ant lages, loot cattle and kidnap for ransom. This A source close to Bennett said the meeting that he had cism over an alleged crackdown on internal opposition trafficking.” “They bring them either in parts or whole year, the armed gangs known locally as bandits, approved focused on “issues between the defense following the death in Palestinian custody of a promi- with contraband merchandise, clothes and various have targeted schools and colleges for mass establishment and the Palestinian Authority.” “There is nent activist. The United Nations and European Union items imported to Ciudad Juarez,” said Jorge Nava, a abductions for ransom. —AFP no peace process with the Palestinians nor will there last week expressed alarm over a spate of arrests tar- prosecutor in the border state of Chihuahua. be,” under Bennett’s leadership, said the source who geting leading critics of Abbas and the PA. —AFP A member of a self-defense group in the violent western state of Michoacan who did not want to be nation are going to move past this racial divide, we group also collaborates with local communities to named said their weapons sometimes come from fami- In US, an effort to need to first of all be educated in what came forth and gather soil at lynching sites to be displayed in glass ly members living north of the frontier.—AFP understand why it happened.” A year after the killing jars with the victims’ names, and to erect narrative of George Floyd set off a nationwide wave of mass markers in public locations throughout the country commemorate antiracism protests, activists are mounting a campaign where lynchings took place. to honor the memory of several thousand African “This was a horrible time in our past, but we need to thousands of Americans who were lynched throughout the country look at it and we need to learn from it so it never hap- from the end of the US Civil War through the end of pens again,” said Melissa Thiel, a historian who is cam- lynching victims World War II. paigning to erect a memorial commemorating another But as the United States undergoes a broader brutal lynching that took place in the city of Sherman, national reckoning over racial justice, the effort is fac- Texas. In 1930, as America was going through the DECATUR: More than 120 years ago, a black man ing a backlash in some communities. Great Depression, a Black day laborer named George was accused of raping a white woman in the city of Hughes was lynched after he was accused of assaulting Decatur, Illinois, but before Samuel Bush could be ‘A horrible time in our past’ the wife of his white boss as he tried to collect $6 in tried, a vicious mob forcibly took him from a local jail, The Equal Justice Initiative, a racial justice advoca- payment for his work. The lynching led to a rampage, in beat him and hung him from a telephone pole. Now, an cy group based in Montgomery, Alabama, has docu- which Black businesses were burnt to the ground. effort is underway to memorialize the brutal lynching. mented more than 4,400 victims of lynchings nation- However, Thiel’s efforts have met resistance in a city “We learn from past mistakes so it doesn’t happen CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico: In this file photo, a man holds a wide from 1877 through 1950. In 2018, it opened the where a towering stone monument to the pro-slavery sign reading “No weapons” during the march for peace again,” said Rich Hansen, a local high school history National Memorial for Peace and Justice, where more Confederacy stands next to the courthouse. Local offi- teacher who is campaigning to dedicate a memorial to and against violence in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, than 800 weathered steel columns etched with the cials have stonewalled Thiel’s plans, saying they don’t Mexico. — AFP Bush in the American Midwestern city. “If we as a names of lynching victims hang from the ceiling. The want to relive a past tragedy. —AFP