At least 287 former Boko Haram fighters have been admitted by the military into a rehabilitation programme under “Operation Safe Corridor” being run by the Defence Headquarters in Gombe State.
The acting Director, Defence Information, Col Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed this on Friday to the Punch, saying other repentant terrorists would be joining the operation “in two days’ time”. For security reasons, the army spokesman added that he could not state specifically the number of repentant Boko Haram joining in two days’ time.
He said the aim of Operation Safe Corridor, which started in September 2015, is to “encourage willing and repentant Boko Haram terrorists to surrender and go through a structured deradicalisation process.”
According to Nwachukwu, the programme had handed over “151 rehabilitated clients to the Borno State Government for reintegration in July”.
He said, “Operation Safe Corridor is an operation led by the DHQ. It is a non-kinetic multi-agency humanitarian operation designed to deradicalise, rehabilitate and reintegrate the repentant Boko Haram members.
“Since its inception in 2016, Operation Safe Corridor has admitted 287 combatants into the programme, out of which 268, including two Chadians have been successfully reintegrated into the programme.
“On July 22, 2019, the operation also transferred 151 rehabilitated clients to the Borno State Government for reintegration. Between September and October 2019, we hosted delegations from Cameroon and Chad to study the models of the programme.
“In a couple of days, the programme would commence again for the new intakes.”
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