Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has launched a weekly peace-building initiative, ‘Sulhu Alheri Ne’, in Borno State, northeast Nigeria.
The aim of the initiative, Development Diaries understands, is to restore peace in the areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
Boko Haram crisis has been on for over a decade with thousands of people killed and more than 1.8 million people displaced.
Reports say repentant terrorists, some of whom had undergone de-radicalisation programme of the federal government through the ‘Opperation Safe Corridor’, have been facing rejection from some of the communities on their return.
‘Transitional justice offers willing Boko THaram the opportunity to demonstrate their repentance and remorse, make amends, render apology, and seek forgiveness from the individuals, families and communities on whom they have perpetrated horric violence’, CDD noted in its training manual.
‘Transitional justice is also the appropriate framework for all the stakeholders looking to work towards reconciliation and restoration of peace in the affected communities’.
It was gathered that local religious leaders, ‘Ulamaas’, host the programme, as they reflect on the dynamics of the conflict and the local approach to reconciliation and peacebuilding.
On the recent capacity training for clerics, a senior research fellow at CDD, Prof. Mala Mustapha, said, ‘People perceive it as if it has been imposed on the communities. The communities have been excluded in the process.
‘And then, they considered it as government paid project to the ex-Boko Haram terrorists neglecting the victims.
‘It is part of these issues that we considered that there is the need to adopt holistic approach to the initiative for the reconciliation of the victims and reintegration of the repentant Boko Haram members’.
Source: CDD
Photo source: CDD
