Nigeria Pledges Protection for Islamist Militants Who Surrender

• Nigeria Pledges Protection for Islamist Militants Who Surrender

Nigeria’s military urged members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram to surrender and pledged to protect them if they did.

“All insurgents who are willing to turn a new leaf are advised to surrender to any military location nearest to them,” Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, a top commander, told journalists Wednesday in Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno. “We guarantee your safety and rehabilitation as well as reintegration into society if you surrender.”

While Attahiru said Boko Haram’s “final defeat is imminent,” the authorities have announced the group’s demise twice before. He conceded that the July 25 kidnapping of geologists traveling with a military escort showed Boko Haram still has strong intelligence networks. The three abducted men remain missing, he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari vowed last week to step up the fight against the group, which has waged an eight-year war to impose its version of Islamic law in Africa’s most populous country, leaving tens of thousands of people dead and forcing millions to flee. Parts of the region are threatened with famine after suffering at least $9 billion in damage from the destruction of bridges, schools and villages.