Hello and welcome!
Our topic today is about the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants: Can People Forgive and Forget?
After years of using force to try to restore peace in the conflict-ridden northeast, in 2016, the Nigerian government introduced a non-military approach, dubbed Operation Safe Corridor, to encourage mass defection of members from armed extremist groups.
The programme was perceived by many as controversial. Its aim was to deradicalise, rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-combatants into society.
It is now five years on – do you think the initiative been successful? Has there been mass defection from extremist groups? How have ordinary citizens reacted? Have they formed friendly relationships with the defectors? And, going forward, what still needs to be done?
Our guests are:
- Hajja Hamsatu Allamin, the director and founder of the Allamin Foundation for Peace and Development;
- Mala Mustapha, a lead consultant at the Centre for Democracy and Development in Gombe State.
