Empirical Study of the Effectiveness of Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration Programmes in Borno State

Disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration programming for former Boko Haram combatants and associates represents one of the most critical and contested security interventions in North East Nigeria, and empirically evaluating programme outcomes fills an important evidence gap for both policy and practice. This study empirically evaluated DDR programme effectiveness in Borno State, focusing on the Operation Safe Corridor programme and informal community reintegration of voluntarily surrendered combatants. A mixed-methods design was employed, combining a survey of 180 DDR programme participants at various stages, structured interviews with 20 programme managers, 8 community integration monitors, and 12 community leaders responsible for reintegration oversight, and secondary analysis of programme monitoring data. Programme effectiveness was assessed across five dimensions: psychosocial rehabilitation, skills acquisition, community acceptance, security monitoring outcomes, and reoffending or re-recruitment rates. Results showed that psychosocial rehabilitation was the dimension with the lowest satisfaction ratings among participants (42.2 percent adequate). Vocational skills training was rated positively by 74.4 percent. Community acceptance remained problematic in 53 communities where returnees reported active rejection. Documented re-recruitment into armed groups was 9.7 percent at 18-month follow-up, below the UNDDR global benchmark of 12 percent. The study fills an important programme evaluation gap and recommends victim-community reconciliation as a mandatory component, psychosocial service enhancement, and strengthened community acceptance programming.

Keywords: DDR, Operation Safe Corridor, Borno State, reintegration, counter-terrorism