Reintegrating Ex-fighters : Prime Minister Prescribes Acceleration

Prime Minister, Head of Government, Joseph Dion Ngute who is the Chairperson of the Management Board of the National Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Committee (NDDRC) of ex-Boko Haram fighters and armed groups in the North West and North West Regions, has prescribed the acceleration of the reintegration process of the ex-fighters and making the Bamenda, Buea and Mora DDR Centres attractive. This was during the second Management Board meeting of the NDDRC that took place at the Auditorium of the Prime Minister’s Office on March 9, 2021. 
The meeting came weeks after some ex-fighters in the DDR Centres in Buea and Bamenda demonstrated requesting better living conditions and the urgency for their reintegration into society. This therefore explained one of the objectives of the meeting which was to find concrete ways of accelerating reintegration and making the reintegration process effective.
The National Coordinator of the National Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Committee, Fai Yengo Francis presented the reintegration strategies of the ex-fighters. Talking to the press after the in-camera meeting, he said, “We had a number of instructions from the Prime Minister but all of them were centred around accelerating the process and making the centres to be more attractive. We have been training the ex-fighters on agriculture, carpentry, livestock. In Bamenda, I found women producing soap, detergents, seamstresses, poultry experts.”
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Civic Education has produced a document validated jointly with the NDDRC entitled, “MINJEC’s contribution to the Reintegration of Returnee-fighters ‘from Boko Haram and the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, as part of the Three-year Special Youth Plan (TYSYP) to facilitate and accelerate the economic reintegration of young people.” The document contains what the ministry had to offer in the reintegration process. Minister Mounouna Foutsou therefore presented the various opportunities for supporting the NDDRC in the reintegration of returnee-fighters. The opportunities...