The Borno State government has announced that nearly 10,000 former Boko Haram fighters have been successfully reintegrated into society through a government-backed deradicalization and rehabilitation program designed to encourage defections from insurgent groups.

This milestone was marked as 720 former combatants graduated from a reintegration center in Maiduguri, the state capital, during a ceremony attended by state officials.

Authorities report that this latest cohort brings the total number of former insurgents reintegrated into their communities to 9,680.

The rehabilitation initiative is part of a broader strategy by Nigerian authorities to weaken jihadist groups operating in the Lake Chad region by incentivizing fighters to surrender and return to civilian life.

Images from the ceremony showed hundreds of former fighters gathered at the reintegration facility, where participants took oaths before being officially released from the program.

The decade-long insurgency led by Boko Haram, which began in Nigeria’s northeast, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced millions across Nigeria and neighboring countries. While military operations have significantly diminished the group’s capabilities, armed factions continue to carry out attacks in parts of the region.

The Borno State government emphasizes that rehabilitation and reintegration programs remain critical to ending the conflict and fostering long-term stability in communities devastated by insurgency.