TheCable

The Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) says more than 120 Boko Haram and Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgents have surrendered in the Lake Chad region. 

MNJTF is a combined multinational formation, comprising units, mostly military, from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. 

Ibrahim Yusuf, a major-general and commander of MNJTF, on Monday at an ongoing workshop in N’Djamena, Chad, said the insurgents have been surrendering in the past three months. 

He said the deployment of kinetic and non-kinetic strategies is what resulted in the terrorists’ surrender, in addition to the public awareness campaign conducted by the force to prevent indoctrination and recruitment by Boko Haram/ISWAP.

According to him, the MNJTF has facilitated the formal transfer of the surrendered fighters and their family members to their respective national authorities, and the process of physical transfer will be completed by the end of October.

He also highlighted the need for a comprehensive, regional and non-kinetic strategy to complement the largely kinetic approach of the MNJTF to tackle the security threats in the Lake Chad Basin.

He noted that the communication strategy of the MNJTF is not robust enough to achieve the desired result, which informed the workshop. 

“It was this realisation that motivated the force to engage with the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the UNDP on the need to articulate a comprehensive and robust strategy based on an all-inclusive participatory methodology,” he said. 

“This workshop is relevant to the attainment of the mandate of the MNJTF. It is pertinent to state at this point that the ultimate objective of this workshop is to produce a framework for defeating Boko Haram/ISWAP. One of the major strands of this non kinetic approach is strategic communication.

“Consequently, our expected outcome of this strategy when it is finally produced include: resistance and rejection of Boko Haram/ISWAP activities; drastic reduction in the capacity of the terrorists to radicalise and recruit innocent members of the public; as well as an increased number of terrorists defecting and surrendering within the Lake Chad Basin.”