Travesty of Remorse?

On August 10th 2021, placard-carrying “repentant’ Boko Haram fighters were presented by the Nigerian Army. The inscriptions on the placards range from “Nigerians, please forgive us” to “Forget terrorism, embrace peace”, “Borno state remains the home of peace”. Many bearers of the cards are allegedly former gun-wielding insurgents that “belonged” to Boko Haram terrorist organization. The jihadist group has attacked many communities in northeast Nigerian and the broader Lake Chad Basin for over twelve years, killing nearly 350,000 people and displacing more than 3 million. In addition, more than 8.7 million people have been pushed into humanitarian needs due to the unending conflict.

The show of remorse is expected to change the perception of millions of northeast and Lake Chad Basin residents against repentant terrorists. The return of forgiveness-seeking insurgents has renewed discussions on the reintegration ex-Boko Haram terrorists. Also, it has posed questions on the true intentions of the returning insurgents. The Institute of Security Studies (ISS) argues that the mass departure is on account of Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) allowing civilians who do not want to be part of the group to leave and those running from ISWAP for their safety. Recall ISWAP’s newly “fought power” in Lake Chad after the death of Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s former leader. New concerns are if returning insurgents are fleeing from ISWAP’s terror or are genuinely remorseful. ISWAP split from Boko Haram in 2016 is mainly due to ideological and operational differences. While ISWAP targets mainly government enterprises and security formations, Boko Haram indiscriminately attacks civilian populations and security units. The two are seemingly two sides of the same jihad group.

In line with ISS claims, fighters leave without disassociating from the group or denouncing Boko Haram’s ideology. Those who are also surrendering appear to be doing so without surrendering their arms. The true situation is uncertain, even as the Nigerian army attribute the mass return to increased counterterrorism operations. The situation may be a classical Trojan horse if not properly handled. A study claims that women enable the insurgent group to obtain operational, logistical, financial, and subsistence resources with many returnees women. This means that if the returnees still pledge allegiance to Boko Haram, chances are they will still work with them in gathering intelligence, recruiting new members and other logistical services.

Since 2016, about 893 ex-insurgents have been processed out of rehabilitation camps amidst wide-public opposition. However, concerns are that the disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration processes conducted for the ex-insurgents were not thorough. A study argues that men and women are not given equal priority during processing and rehabilitation. Hence, the outcome of reintegration is different for male and female ex-insurgents. While the Operation Safe Corridor (OSC) targets low-risk repentant terrorists for DDR, the returnees reportedly include Boko Haram commanders, women and children. Therefore, there is a need for proper classification of the returnees based on the strategy being adopted by the Nigerian government to determine who is prosecuted, processed for DDR or declared innocent. The painstakingness of this effort will help reduce the risks of having unrepentant fighters lumped together with those whose association with the group has been coerced or forced-and whose departure is genuine.

In addition to standard DDR processes, the Nigerian government must implement monitoring frameworks to check the successes of rehabilitated ex-fighters. This will include intelligence gathering on their continued disassociation with terrorist groups, contribution to society and local acceptance in communities where they have been reintegrated. Tactical handling of returnee insurgents may be more important than photo props as issues around community acceptance, true remorse, and ending the war on terrorism are still critical considerations.