Nigeria's Troubled Exit Path for Now Repentant Jihadists

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.

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