The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai has advocated an inter-agency collaboration towards disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of repentant Boko Haram fighters.
Gen Buratai made the call on Tuesday 26 November 2019 at a roundtable on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR), towards peace building and reconciliation in the North-East of Nigeria. The programme was organised by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) in conjunction with NEEM Foundation. He said that, the Nigerian Army has put in place right mechanism to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate the ex-combatant. He stressed that,
disarmament in this context requires heightening the military activities to be able to forcefully disarm the terrorists. “We are already in the process of
demobilisation with the Operation Safe Corridor that is ongoing in some parts of North–East including, Gombe State”, he said.
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He further posited that, reintegration is quite fundamental, considering the atrocities they have committed. He therefore, called for an inter-agency collaboration to ensure that the insurgents do not go back to the bushes to unleash terrors on innocent people. In his remarks, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who was the special Guest of Honour said that, the North-East insurgency has assumed the insurrectional level, hence the need for intervention of the military to disarm, demobilse, reconcile and reintegrate. “The goal of this forum is to bring together all peace stakeholders, military, civilians, federal and state agencies, local and international Non-Governmental Organisations to discuss what is happening in the northeast, approaches to use in ending it and also work out disarmament, demobilsation, reintegration and reconciliation (DDRR) process to
addressing the issues.
“Now that the ongoing kinetic efforts have been upgraded with dismantling the terrorists’ enclave to some large extent, all efforts must now be geared
towards developing a consensus which will allow those of them who are still in doubt to surrender willingly without being forced”, he said.
