The African Union (AU) has supported the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) with $800,000 (about N12.8 billion) in strengthening the counter-terrorism campaigns in Lake Chad Basin.
  
This was as the National Counter-terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser, said at least 5,000 repentant Boko Haram fighters were reunited with their families, adding that none of the ex-combatants returned to the battleground after six months of a de-radicalisation programme.
  
According to AU, the basin is on the lake shores of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger. The AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Adeoye Bankole, announced the financial support at the inauguration of the 5th Lake Chad Governors’ Forum, yesterday in Maiduguri, Borno State.
 
 He said, “Our financial and logistics support plays a critical role in combating Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) threats to lives and property.”
 
 Since 2015, he noted, the MNJTF has been instrumental in ensuring security in the communities affected by the over-a-decade insurgency.  Bankole also pointed out: “The Joint Task Force in Lake Chad region has thwarted several attacks, which facilitated the stabilisation programme in the region.”

He said the union would further commit an additional $800,000 to boost the counter-insurgency operations in the region, adding: “The financial support will also improve intelligence sharing to support regional stabilisation efforts.”.  He, therefore, urged governments in the Lake Chad Basin to integrate counterterrorism and stabilisation efforts into their national budgets.
  
The Executive Secretary, Lake Chad Basin Commission, Mamman Nuhu, warned that significant challenges remained high, particularly with the recent resurgence of Boko Haram terrorists in some areas of the Basin.

HEAD of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE), Mairo Abbas, on the second day of the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum, said a harmonised strategy would help the governors of the Lake Chad region to address their common issues.
 
 Mairo, who spoke at the Third Penal with the theme, ‘Managing Boko Haram Exits and Demobilization of Armed Groups’, said de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme for ex-Boko Haram fighters, known as Operation Safe Corridor, reintegrated over 5,000 repented Boko Haram into the society.
  
“Under Operation Safe Corridor programme, we have de-radicalised over 5,000 ex-combatants of Boko Haram and reunited them with their families. They are using the skills they have acquired in the six-month de-radicalisation programme to sustain themselves within the communities.