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Nigeria’s defence chief claims over 50,000 Boko Haram insurgents, families surrendered to troops in North-East

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The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, said on Saturday 51,828 Boko Haram terrorists and their family members have surrendered to troops under the Operation Safe Corridor programme in the North-East.

Irabor, who disclosed in his address at the 7th Founders’ Day of the Edo State University Uzairue, said the insurgents surrendered to the troops between July 2021 and May last year.

The Operation Safe Corridor was created by the Federal Government to provide special facilities for the rehabilitation of repentant terrorists.

The CDS revealed that out of the 51,828 surrendered terrorists, 13,360 were fighters.

He added that 1,935 had already been released from the camp located in the Bulumkutu area of Maiduguri, Borno State.

Irabor said: “About 51,828 Boko Haram fighters and their family members have surrendered to the federal government between July 2021 and May 2022.

READ ALSO: Over 200 Boko Haram terrorists, family members killed by ISWAP

“The Operation Safe Corridor offers numerous opportunities and participants are exposed to vocational training to ease their reintegration into the society.

“Despite the modest successes recorded by operation safe corridor in the fight against crime, the programme still faced a lot of challenges.

“Some of the challenges include the lack of specialised training expertise and inadequate physical structure, inadequate collaboration and coordination, absence of appropriate legislation on reintegration, low agency and international participation as well as an ineffective monitoring system.”

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