The Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq says the Ministry has contributed immensely to the non-kinetic strategy of managing surrendered insurgents for their rehabilitation and reintegration process in the North East.
The Minister made this known in Abuja
at the opening ceremony of the 3-Day Seminar on Rehabilitation of Repentant Insurgents in the North East, organised by the Ministry and Office of the National Security Adviser in collaboration with the Nigeria Army Resource Centre.
According to a signed statement by the Deputy Director Information, Rhoda Iliya, Farouq said, the Ministry as a member of Operation Safe Corridor National Steering Committee and member of National Action Plan Steering Committee on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) coordinated by the Counter Terrorism Centre (CTC) in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has contributed immensely to the non-kinetic strategy of managing surrendered insurgents for their rehabilitation and reintegration process.
According to the statement, Food and non-food items, including starter packs, have been contributed for the rehabilitation and reintegration of the ex-combatants directly by the Ministry and some of its Agencies.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Nasir Sani- Gwarzo, she said “It is worthy of note that the Ministry recently conducted a survey on victims of terrorism with the view to identifying and providing the needed psychosocial support to the affected persons.
She added that,In search of sustainable humanitarian response, the Ministry has adopted the United Nations principle of Tripple Nexus approach which provides linkages to humanitarian response that leads to development as well as peace building.
Hence, the ministry leading other relevant MDAs and organization have developed a home-grown National Humanitarian Development Peace framework which provide a holistic response while applying area-based approach.
“This is expected to guide all humanitarian response in Nigeria and we hope the outcome of your deliberation will align with the framework”.
The Minister also stated that the insurgency in the NE has brought about untold hardship, destruction and loss of lives to the people of the North East and the 3-Day seminar is aimed among other things to examine modalities for the management of surrendered terrorist in the region.
She urged participants to take the seminar serious and give it the best attention it deserves.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Faruk Yahaya, in his welcome address stated that the kinetic efforts of the military has led to the surrendering of over 87,000 terrorists and their families in the N/E they have laid down their arms and embrace peace.
He called on both the military and relevant stakeholders to cooperate and perform their roles to win the war against terrorism in Nigeria because the task is enormous and the time is of essence
The Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum, represented by his Special Adviser on Security Matters, Brig. Gen. Sabi Ishaq, (RTD), in a keynote address gave an overview of the management and reintegration of surrendered Boko Haram and Islamic West Africa Province terrorists in the North East.
He discussed the operations and activities of the insurgents and reasons for their mass surrender and how they were encouraged to drop their guns and embrace peace.
Earlier, the Director General, Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Maj. Gen. G.A Wahab (RTD), said the seminar was on handling and management of repentant insurgents in the North East, stressing the need to manage the huge number of repentant insurgents before their reintegration into the society.
Other participants at the seminar include Representatives of State governments, Ambassadors, MDAs, Military and Security Agencies, Office of the NSA, Resource persons and CSOs/ NGOs.
