South West : Buea NDDRC Keeps Receiving Repentant Fighters

374 persons comprising 340 males, 23 females and 11 children of inmates are the current occupants of the National Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Centre (NDDRC) Buea. Created by a Presidential decree in 2018, the very first two ex-fighters were integrated in the Centre on December 22, 2018. Since then, their numbers have gained exponential proportion with the latest arrival of five young men received last Friday March 24, 2023, from Ndian Division. The NDDR Centre in Buea functions at a temporary site, in the premises of the Borstal Institute of Buea, a State institution that had been carrying out similar reintegration duties on behalf of the government through the Ministry of Social Affairs. 
Throwing more light on the Institution, the Coordinator of the Buea Centre, Bernard Ndode Messape, explained that they can accommodate about 800 returnees within its five dormitories of two compartments each.
The Centre has the mission of transforming young boys and girls who had been misled by taking up arms against the State, but who have voluntarily accepted the government’s stretched hand of peace. The Centre Coordinator said with the time spent in bushes, the returnees developed habits considered abnormal which they are trying to oust. But as clearly stated as one of the objectives of the Centre, the staff is tasked to see that they progressively move from those bad habits to better ones. ‘‘Logically, there has been quite some positive change, in their behaviours but it is relative, it depends on the individual’’.
Thanks to the Specia...