NewsBorno Sets Up Stakeholders Programmes To Reintegrate Child Soldiers

Borno Sets Up Stakeholders Programmes To Reintegrate Child Soldiers

February 15, (THEWILL) – Borno State Government has established a stakeholders programmes to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate child soldiers and to ensure their protection from exploitation and re-recruitment.

Borno State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, disclosed this on Monday in Maiduguri during an event sponsored by UNICEF to commemorate The International Day Against the Recruitment of Child Soldiers.

Gambo said the State Government has established a Birth Registration Centre for the profiling of the children, especially among the IDP children who are being resettled in their ancestral homes.

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She added that the State Government has further put in place a strategy to protect children formerly associated with armed groups from retribution, summary execution, arbitrary detention, torture and other punitive measures, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international juvenile justice standards.

The Borno State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, disclosed this on Monday in Maiduguri, during an event sponsored by UNICEF to commemorate The International Day Against the Recruitment of Child Soldiers.

“Children become part of an armed force or group for various reasons. In our case in the northeast, most were abducted, threatened, coerced, or manipulated by armed actors. Some associated themselves for survival or to protect their communities.

“No matter their involvement, the recruitment and use of children by armed forces is a grave violation of child rights and international humanitarian law.

“Whether or not children are accepted back into society depends on various factors, including their reason for association with armed actors, and the perceptions of their families and communities.

“Most children who attempt to reintegrate are viewed with suspicion or outright rejection, while others may struggle to fit in. Psychological distress makes it difficult for children to tell their experiences, especially when they fear stigma or how people will react.

“It is not enough that His Excellency, the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has assented to the bill passed on the Child Rights Act by the Borno State House of Assembly.

“All hands are on deck to ensure full implementation and incorporation of operational protocols to achieve the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Borno state especially on the Involvement of children in armed conflict.

“Awareness, advocacy and communication strategies are vital at these trying times for our children. Hence the BOSG through the MoWASD employs a strategic approach when dealing with politically sensitive issues. Advocacy and communication strategies well rooted in sound child rights-based approaches”, she said.

She further noted that: “In order to maximise their effectiveness, we work with several children associated with arms groups, we know their stories. But the communities do not know, these stories are critical to ensure that advocacy strategies are rooted in credibility and foster community acceptance.

“Our services to promote the child’s harmonious development are based on a multidimensional understanding of the reintegration framework. We have a team of well equipped social workers trained to handle such children.

“It is our primary responsibility to have community health-care and psychosocial support centre to carry out these services, which should be coupled with the comprehensive provision of health-care services, including measures to address sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal health care and support.

“In addition to our in-house social workers, we have partnership with the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, State Specialist Hospital etc, to attend to cases as desired. Education and vocational training are of crucial importance, especially as they facilitate access to future economic opportunities.

“These programmes involve skill-based training in a range of different trades and sectors, and include means for providing assistance to the child with a view to eventually enabling him or her to set up a business”, She said

Hajiya Gambo, however, said the release and reintegration of child soldiers is one part of a bigger process of achieving peace and stability in the state.

“I call on families and the community to come with us on this journey to achieving the peaceful Borno we all crave for by accepting the surrendered children”, she said.

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