800 militants join Nigerian de-radicalization program

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - The first group of surrendered Boko Haram fighters has been taken into a Nigerian government rehabilitation program, an official said Tuesday.

Under the Operation Safe Corridor scheme up to 800 former fighters are undergoing rehabilitation while the government provides them with food and shelter, Sani Datti, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said in a statement.

“NEMA has presented food and non-food items to the military for the Operation Safe Corridor program meant to de-radicalize, rehabilitate and re-integrate 800 repented and surrendered Boko Haram insurgents to fast-track the peace process in the northeast,” the statement said.

The program is similar to the amnesty program declared for the militants in oil-rich Delta state in 2009.

Last year, the army said it was creating a corridor for Boko Haram fighters to quit the insurgency and lay down their arms in return for clemency. At the time, the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau rejected the offer.

Boko Haram’s savage insurgency has seen more than 20,000 people killed and 2.3 million displaced since 2009.