A report by a United Nations (UN) independent news organisation, The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News), has uncovered a secret programme by the Nigerian government tagged, Suhlu, aimed at pulling top commanders of terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) out of the forests, rehabilitate them and provide them with a means of livelihood.
According to the UN organisation, Sulhu grew out of the behind-the-scenes attempts to free the more than 270 Chibok schoolgirls seized by Boko Haram in 2014, and is applauded by its supporters as smart warfare – a means to remove the senior jihadists from the battlefield more effectively than the orthodox military campaign.
The discovery follows intelligence agencies’ investigations into the recent surrender of over 1,200 terrorists and their families in the last three weeks, to the Nigerian government, to ascertain whether the surrender was genuine or a ploy to activate and coordinate terror sleeper cells across the country.
Ripples Nigeria reported that the Borno State government had announced its decision to reintegrate over 1,000 repentant Boko Haram fighters into society. But the development was greeted with annoyance by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East.
The IDPs’ anger was because they were still languishing in pain and sorrow caused by the Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East, particularly in Borno State, which was the epicentre of the insurgency.
Following the outcry by IDPs, the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum has said the state was in a very difficult situation over the ongoing surrender of Boko Haram insurgents and the agitation by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) against accepting the repentant terrorists.
Also, Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Garbai El-Kanem, had raised concerns that the communities where thousands of people were killed by the terrorists and houses destroyed might not be in the right frame of mind to accept the surrendered insurgents.
However, the report by The New Humanitarian, which comes after six months of research, revealed that Sulhu was reaching out to “senior jihadist fighters” in the bush to encourage them to abandon their goal of building a caliphate by force of arms, and to defect.
According to the UN organisation, the programme is so controversial that no government representative agreed to go on record to discuss it, while only a few Nigeria-based civil society figures agreed to be named.
The report quoted an Abuja-based analyst, who didn’t agree to be named to have said, “We have a proof of concept; it’s working. It’s depleting the enemy’s fighting force.”
However, the men on the Sulhu programme are almost certain to have been involved in atrocities. Although they have not been granted a formal amnesty, it is unlikely that they would be held to account for the crimes they committed in the brutal conflict that is now in its twelfth year.
