In just four months, the spouses of remorseful Boko Haram insurgents have given birth to no fewer than 263 babies.
This was revealed by the Borno State Government to visiting media on Tuesday in Maiduguri, the state capital.
The delivery took place in the medical facility inside the Maiduguri Hajj Camp, which is currently serving as a temporary haven for insurgents who have turned around.
The state administration claims that the camp is housing more than 16,000 terrorists who have admitted their crimes.
Giving the breakdown of the delivery to journalists, the Medical Officer in charge of the health facility, Dr. Mohammed Saleh, said 94 children were birthed in July 2022, 98 in August, 60 in September, and 11 in October. There are reportedly more than 500 pregnant women at the Hajj camp right now.
“Almost on a daily basis, we carry out delivery,” Saleh said.
In a separate interview with journalists, Brigadier General Abdullahi Ishaq (retd), the senior special adviser to the governor of Borno State on security issues, stated that since the state government began a cooperative, non-kinetic response to the Boko Haram uprising in 2021, over 82,000 fighters and their families had surrendered. More than 3,500 people had been reintegrated into their communities, Ishaq noted.
He claimed that the combatants compelled more than 85% of the repentant Boko Haram fighters who have surrendered to join them.
The state authorities claimed that the logistics for repelling the atoning terrorists remained a significant obstacle.
The Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zuwaira Gambo, told newsmen that the government had the political will to implement the model it had adopted for the de-radicalisation and rehabilitation of terrorists who were willing to lay down their arms and surrender.
“The Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum is determined to ensure peace returns to the state,” Gambo said.
She claims that it is difficult to house and feed such a large number of ex-fighters at once. She did, however, emphasise that the government was making every effort to accomplish that.
She said: “We want to ensure they are reintegrated into the society as better people.
“We have also created skill acquisition programmes for the men and women to be empowered with skills before they go back to their communities.
“Schools have also been built with the support of partners where the children of the repentant insurgents can acquire education.
“They are willing to acquire Western education now, contrary to the ideology of Boko Haram.”
The largest of the three camps housing the atrocity-committed terrorists is the Hajj camp. For those who are married and have children, almost 3,000 dwellings have been built in the camp; those who are single are housed in other tents. In contrast to the nearly 10,000 women and children, there are over 6,000 men in the camp.