March 26, 2024

The military has released 230 suspected Boko Haram terrorists made up of two hundred and nineteen males and eleven females after profiling them.

According to Channels Television report, source within the military said the suspects were cleared after it was established that they are not terrorists but were conscripted against their will.

The source added that the 230 suspects were handed over today to the Borno state government through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development for reintegration.

Nigeria’s armed forces are fighting on several fronts, including against armed criminals in the northwest and a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast that has killed 40,000 and displaced more than two million since 2009.

Boko Haram and rival IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have increasingly targeted farmers, loggers, herders and fishermen, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and militia fighting them.

Fighting in Borno and some parts of the North-East has eased as militants have been pushed back from the territory they once controlled, but they still carry out attacks, kidnappings, and raids in remote areas.