5,000 ex-Boko Haram militants reintegrated, says official

At least 5,000 Boko Haram militants have left the terrorist group and rejoined their families in Nigeria, an official said.

“Under Operation Safe Corridor program, we have deradicalized over 5,000 ex-combatants of Boko Haram and reunited them with their families,” said Mairo Musa Abbas, the head of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE), according to the local Daily Trust.

She noted that monitoring systems are used by local leaders and National Orientation Agency collaborators across Nigeria’s 774 local governments to track community reintegration progress.

“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,” PCVE chief added.

She also urged Lake Chad governors as well as stakeholders to align their strategies for coordinated action.

Recently, the Nigerian Air Force targeted high-profile terrorist leaders in northeastern state of Borno, killing scores of Boko Haram terrorists and destroying key structures.

Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria since the early 2000s, is responsible for mass terrorist attacks that have claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Since 2015, the group has extended its attacks to neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, resulting in at least 2,000 deaths across the Lake Chad Basin.

The ongoing violence has forced hundreds of thousands of Nigerians to flee their homes.

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