Nearly 60 men who said they were captured by the Boko Haram
Islamist group and forced to fight for them in Nigeria have surrendered to
authorities in northern Cameroon. After spending two years with Boko Haram, the
men decided to flee with their families and hand themselves in, according to
several men who had surrendered and spoke to journalists at a ceremony in the
town of Mozogo on Friday.
A total of nearly
400 people originally from Cameroon — 58 men, 86 women and 244 children — said
they had been taken hostage by Boko Haram fighters during attacks on their
villages and taken to Nigeria, where they were forced to join the jihadist
group. The men told reporters they had fought for Boko Haram and were laying
down their arms of their own will.
They surrendered
at the border with Nigeria to a village vigilante group formed to combat the
jihadists. The vigilantes then handed them over to the authorities. Ousmane
Kouila, head of the group, said they had been out on patrol in the border area
when they met the fleeing Boko Haram fighters. “They said they were returning,
and that they were surrendering,” he said.
The local
governor went to meet them and ordered them to be moved away from the border to
avoid any reprisals by Boko Haram. “We are counting on them to also convince
others who are hesitating (to surrender) and there are a lot of them they tell
us,” said Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region.
Authorities would
provide the escapees with psychological help, he said. “They have been through
brainwashing, perhaps also having taken an oath on the Koran or made a blood
pact,” the governor said, adding they needed help with “all they must have
endured” in the hands of Boko Haram.
Boko Haram’s
Islamist insurgency began in 2009 and has claimed at least 20,000 lives and
forced more than 2.6 million from their homes. The violence has largely been
concentrated in northeast Nigeria but there have also been repeated attacks in
Cameroon, as well as Chad and Niger.
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