7,000 Boko Haram, other terrorists surrender in northeast Nigeria in a week

By Adam Abu-bashal

ABUJA, Nigeria (AA) - Some 7,000 members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist organization and Boko Haram surrendered in northeastern Nigeria in the past one week, local media reported on Wednesday.

An onslaught on ISWAP and Boko Haram militants has continued to record significant successes, Maj. Gen. Christopher Musa was quoted as saying by the News Agency of Nigeria.

Musa said that at least 7,000 Boko Haram and ISWAP members surrendered in the last week during the operations.

“This is evident as thousands of the insurgents comprising combatants, non-combatants, foot soldiers alongside their families, continued to lay down their arms in different parts of Borno to accept peace,” he said.

The surrendered terrorists and their families are expected to be carefully profiled by the Nigerian army and other stakeholders before they undergo rehabilitation processes, he added.

Boko Haram launched a bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread its atrocities to neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, prompting a military response.

Around 350,000 people have been killed and three million civilians displaced in over a decade of terrorism in the country, according to the UN Humanitarian Affairs office in Nigeria.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar in Ankara