Reinserting ex-associates of Boko Haram in Cameroon

Abstract

ABSTRACT In November 2018, the State of Cameroon announced the creation of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR) to organise, supervise and manage the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former Boko Haram fighters and armed groups in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions. The need arose as communities had been hosting successive waves of former Boko Haram associates. This research focuses on those communities where reintegration routes are either off or upstream the institutional framework set by the government. Based on a field survey and available literature on the current security crisis in the Far-North region of Cameroon, the study describes the profiles of these ex-hostages and ex-combatants that are grouped under the term of ex-associates. Reception conditions as well as the ordalic reintegration mechanisms put in place by the communities’ leaders are also analysed. The challenge of identifying and counting those ex-associates exhaustively and the delay in implementing a coherent national reintegration strategy make it quite illusory to envisage a credible alternative to that still existing community model.