Borno partners stakeholders to disarm demobilise, child soldiers

Borno State Government has established partner programmes to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers and special measures to ensure children’s protection from exploitation and pre-recruitment.

The programme was established in order to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and ensure their demobilisation as well as reintegration into the society to live a better life and have access to education, employment and health among other social necessities of life.

The Borno State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo disclosed this Monday at a one day ceremony held at Prime Lodge Conference Hall Maiduguri.

The event was organized by Borno State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and supported by United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF).

The State government through her ministry has established Birth Registration Center for the profiling of the children, especially, among the IDP children who are being resettled in their ancestral homes.

She added that the State government has further put in place a strategy to protect children formerly associated with armed groups from retribution, summary execution, arbitrary detention, torture and other punitive measures, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international juvenile justice standards.

The Hon Commissioner in her lead role of the Borno State Government in Negotiating the Release and Reintegration of Children formerly associated with Armed Groups at the marking of International Day Against the recruitment of child soldiers at the Prime Lodge, Maiduguri in collaboration with UNICEF.

“Children become part of an armed force or group for various reasons. In our case in the northeast, most were abducted, threatened, coerced, or manipulated by armed actors. Some associated themselves for survival or to protect their communities.

“No matter their involvement, the recruitment and use of children by armed forces is a grave violation of child rights and international humanitarian law.

“Whether or not children are accepted back into society depends on various factors, including their reason for association with armed actors, and the perceptions of their families and communities.

“Most children who attempt to reintegrate are viewed with suspicion or outright rejection, while others may struggle to fit in.
Psychological distress makes it difficult for children to process and verbalize their experiences, especially when they fear stigma or how people will react.

“It is not enough that we have adopted the His Excellency, the Borno State Governor on 2021 assented to the bill passed on the Child Rights Act passed by the Borno State House of Assembly.

“All hands are on deck to ensure full implemention and incorporation of operational protocols to achieve the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Borno state especially on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

“Already there’s a declaration setting 18 as the standard minimum age for voluntary recruitment, and participation in hostilities. Armed groups target and recruit children because they are more easily intimidated and to control, both physically and mentally, than adults.

“Terrorist groups in an attempt to ensure their future survival, see the use of children as an “investment in the Reintegration as a multidimensional process. Social reintegration is understood as the process through which a child following recruitment

“For us in Borno State,achieving social reintegration is the primary purpose of our actions taken affecting children recruited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, and it is a crucial step is to ensure that the child will assume a constructive role in society.

Key components of social reintegration of children include: Health and psychosocial recovery and support where measures through child-sensitive interventions, address the impact of recruitment, violence and conflict on the physical and mental wellbeing of the child.

Children who have been associated with terrorist and violent extremist groups face a complex set of specific challenges during their reintegration process. Hence the Bulunkutu Interim Care Center was designed to provide these services in partnership with UNICEF.

“Rather than being regarded as victims, women and girls who survived sexual violence and their children are often considered as potential perpetrators of violence, as these victims of conflict are perceived by many as being partly responsible for the violence and losses suffered by entire communities during the insurgency.

“As a responsible Agency, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has continuously enhanced the process of reintegrating by taking appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts.

“Awareness-raising, advocacy and communication strategies are vital at these trying times for our children. Hence the BOSG through the MoWASD employs strategic approach when dealing with politically sensitive issues. Advocacy and communication strategies well rooted in sound child rights-based approaches.

“In order to maximize their effectiveness, we work with several children associated with arms groups, we know their stories. But the communities do not know, these stories are critical to ensure that advocacy strategies are rooted in credibility and foster community acceptance.

“Our services to promote the child’s harmonious development and are based on a multidimensional understanding of the reintegration framework. We have a team of well equipped social workers trained to handle such children.

“It is our primary responsibility to have Community health-care and psychosocial support centres to carry out these services, which should be coupled with the comprehensive provision of health-care services, including measures to address sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal health care and support.

“In addition to our in house social workers we have partnership with the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, State Specialist Hospital etc to attend to cases as desired.
Education and vocational training are of crucial importance, especially as they facilitate access to future economic opportunities.

“These programmes involve skill-based training in a range of different trades and sectors, and include means for providing assistance to the child with a view to eventually enabling him or her to set up a business”, Zuwaira said

Hajiya Gambo asserted that release and reintegration of child soldiers is one part of a bigger process of achieving peace and stability. I call on families and community to come with us on this journey to achieving the peaceful Borno we all crave for by accepting the surrendered children.

The commissioner however explained that the release and reintegration of children are clearly not stand-alone activities, but connected to a wide range of other factors – conflict dynamics, economic development, legal reform, institution building etc – all of which contribute to influencing the extent to which effective reintegration is achieved.

She also noted that humanitarian organizations cannot reform our policies, they can only do as much as we let them the BOSG has taken the lead in achieving the returning of a child to their community which can be relatively swift, by their acceptance in the community and their ability to take on a meaningful role in it while appealing that for sustainability purposes all hands must be on deck.