Boko Haram Kidnaps Children to Replace Dead Fighters – Presidency Reveals

The Presidency has disclosed that Boko Haram continues to recruit its ranks by abducting children from rural communities whenever the terrorist group suffers heavy losses during military operations.

Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, made the disclosure on Wednesday while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

He explained that many of the young people found within insurgent camps were not willing recruits but victims of forced abduction.

According to Bwala, the terrorist group often turns to vulnerable villages in the North-East to source new members after losing fighters in clashes with security forces.

“When Boko Haram starts to lose their members they go to villages and carry children and take them to the bush and recruit them, these are the people you recruited against their will,” Bwala said.

He noted that some of them who later surrender to government authorities were initially kidnapped and forced into the insurgency.

Bwala explained that when such persons escape from terrorist camps and return to government-controlled areas, they are usually processed under existing deradicalisation and rehabilitation programmes instead of being treated as combatants.

“If something happens in the camp and they escape they come to Nigeria government, and they said they have repented, the Nigeria will not shoot them,” he stated.

The presidential aide said the handling of former insurgents is guided by international conventions relating to armed conflicts and the treatment of victims who are compelled to participate in hostilities.

“And that is why I said the dynamics of armed conflict is guided by the United Nations Convention,” he added.

Bwala, however, acknowledged public concerns over the reintegration of former insurgents into society.

He admitted that there have been cases where some individuals who previously surrendered allegedly returned to terrorist activities.

“The other part of your fear as expressed by most Nigerians is that we have had cases where some of them ran back, even the governor of Borno once said that some of the attacks that resurged probably have connection with some of those that ran back,” he said.

He maintained that such developments are not unusual in conflict situations around the world, stressing that defections and recidivism remain realities that security agencies must contend with.

“In warfare and conflicts, these things are possibilities, even when it comes to established institutions of state from foreign intelligence, we have seen defection of people to another place where they are recruited, these are realities of facts,” Bwala stated.

The issue of insurgency in Nigeria has lasted for more than a decade, and it has displaced millions of people and left thousands dead.

Security agencies have repeatedly accused terrorist groups of targeting children and young persons for recruitment, indoctrination and other activities within their camps.

The Federal Government has continued to combine military operations with rehabilitation programmes aimed at encouraging defections from insurgent groups while also preventing fresh recruitment.

Bwala recently defended the Federal Government’s ongoing security reforms, saying authorities were taking fresh steps to tackle insurgency, banditry and kidnapping across the country.

According to the presidential aide, the Tinubu administration was expanding the country’s security architecture through the recruitment and retraining of personnel.

“We are investing in training and retraining. First of all, we’re investing in recruiting more security personnel because the ones we have are not sufficient to match the population and the landmass,” Bwala said.

He disclosed that some of the new recruits would serve as forest guards, a move aimed at denying terrorists and criminal groups safe havens in remote forests.