Nigeria’s ex-terrorists seek new lives after vocational training
Agency Report
For years, 32-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed lived among jihadist fighters in the dense forests of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State. But a heartfelt video message from his mother ultimately persuaded him to abandon the insurgency.
Nigeria’s prolonged conflict began after the Boko Haram uprising in 2009, sparking an insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced more than three million people from their homes.
“I received a video from my mother in which she begged me to leave the group, surrender my weapons, and come back home,” Mohammed told AFP on Friday during a ceremony marking the completion of a rehabilitation programme for former jihadist fighters in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and centre of the 17-year insurgency.
“Her words moved me deeply. I realised my family had not given up on me and still wanted me home. That was the moment I decided to leave the bush and surrender.”
Mohammed was among approximately 720 former fighters who recently graduated from a state-run rehabilitation initiative, part of broader efforts to tackle the insurgency through non-military means.
Under the blazing sun, the ex-fighters, clad in white T-shirts, received copies of the Koran and swore an oath not to return to any jihadist organisation.
The group included several former commanders, among them one who admitted authorising the killing of his own son after the boy refused to participate in an attack on a village.