UN chief backs Nigeria’s integration of insurgents, calls it key to peace
By Seun Sanni
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres stated on Tuesday he totally supported strikes to increase services to reintegrate surrendering Islamist insurgents in northeastern Nigeria as a result of it was a key step to attaining peace in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria has been combating Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for greater than a decade, in a battle that has killed hundreds and compelled hundreds of thousands to flee their properties.
As a part of efforts to finish the battle, the federal government is reintegrating fighters who voluntarily give up.
Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum stated at the very least 40,000 Boko Haram fighters and their households have turned themselves in to authorities since final yr, because the group reels from the loss of life of its chief early in 2021 and as rival ISWAP seeks to soak up them.
Guterres, who visited a camp housing some fighters who surrendered and one other housing internally displaced individuals within the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, later advised a information convention that the mixing programme would assist obtain peace.
“The governor has advised me that you’ll want to create new services to have the ability to have efficient reintegration of those ex-terrorists, ex-combatants, and I promised that we might be totally supportive of that venture,” Guterres stated.
“The perfect factor we are able to do for peace is to reintegrate those that within the second of despair turned terrorists however now need to develop into residents and to contribute to the well-being of their brothers and sisters.”
The reintegration of the fighters is creating tensions notably in Maiduguri the place weary residents have borne the brunt of greater than a decade of Boko Haram’s brutal assaults.
Guterres urged continued humanitarian help in Borno, however added that, finally, individuals in camps wished to return to their properties “in security and dignity.”
The Borno state authorities in December began closing some camps for internally displaced individuals, citing improved safety and the give up of Boko Haram fighters, though humanitarian teams say it’s nonetheless unsafe for individuals to return to their properties. (This story refiles to appropriate first title in byline)
(Reporting by Seun Sanni in Maiduguri and Maiduguri newsroom; writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Modifying by Leslie Adler)
