The mujahideen slaughtered government officials, members of the security forces, journalists, feminists, intellectuals and French-speaking individuals in what appeared to be a bid to eliminate the educated class that, according to them, had been contaminated by Western values. They killed school teachers, soccer fans, tourists from the West, moderate Muslims, women, politicians, among other forms of outrageous brutality that made the country to recede to primitive age of savagery.
In Algeria’s struggle against terrorism, some 150,000 people lost their lives, and the country sustained some $30 billion in material and infrastructural damage. The root cause of the terrorist fanaticism could be linked to the over-indulgence of extremist elements in the name of Arabization of Algeria from French culture, but it took strategic and decisive steps by government and the military to overcome the ubiquitous terrorists.
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The days-long siege by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters on one of the locations where Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), lived, following several months of trailing, seems to have paid off for his former associates turned arch-rivals.
The details trickling in so far surrounding his death are conflicting. However, one line remains consistent, “Shekau is dead.” Whether he killed himself to avoid humiliation or he died from injuries after he was shot is unclear.
Mr Shekau’s death happened during an operation conducted by Bako Gorgore, one of ISWAP’s most influential fighters. Mr Gorgore died alongside Mr Shekau after the latter detonated an explosive vest.
Around the world, states locked in conflict with jihadists are trying to devise policies to reintegrate disillusioned militants into society. In Nigeria, a program targeting defectors from the violent extremist group Boko Haram offers a window into the promise and pitfalls of such efforts. For the past 12 years, Nigeria has struggled to quash a violent insurgency waged by Boko Haram in its northeast. Although a 2015 military offensive put the jihadists onto the back foot, the federal government recognized that it would not be able to defeat the insurgency solely through force. It therefore decided to explore nonmilitary ways to erode Boko Haram and, after the group split roughly five years ago, its two successor factions which I will refer to collectively here simply as Boko Haram.
Stopping the Vicious Circle
In the last ten years, many northeast communities are embattled by armed groups’ insurgency. Through kidnapping, coercion, promises, financial inducements, many residents in the volatile zone have been made to join terrorist organisations. Beyond the terrorists’ membership drive, the Nigerian government created a platform called “Operation Safe Corridor” to aid the repentance and processing of low-risk terrorists as part of the efforts to end violent jihad in the region.
Since 2016, about 881 repentant Boko Haram fighters have been processed out of the rehabilitation exercise. However, even as Operation Safe Corridor continues, new recruitments by the terrorist groups are likely. For instance, new reports claim that the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter terrorist group operating in the Lake Chad region, shared cash gifts of ₦20,000 per household in Geidam in Yobe State. In some instance, some impacted communities have ne
REVEALED: How Buhari’s Government Pardoned Over 1, 000 Boko Haram Fighters Despite Ruling Out Amnesty In 2015
Before becoming the President, he also criticised the granting of amnesty to Niger Delta militants by the Umaru Yar Adua administration.
by SaharaReporters, New York
May 05, 2021
President Muhammadu Buhari, going against his promise in February 2015, has now pardoned more than 1, 000 Boko Haram terrorists in three years and his government is some rehabilitating through the military’s Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe State.
SaharaReporters learnt that the Buhari government, which has continuously failed to end the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency, has the Operation Safe Corridor for the terrorists, with three arms known as de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration.