United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Mrs. Amina Mohammed says members of the proscribed Boko Haram insurgents are not bandits.

Her comment comes few hours after UN report that insurgency and other related crimes have claimed about 350,000 lives in Nigeria.

The UN envoy who spoke at Baze University Facility of Law Lecture series on Thursday in Abuja, stated that the backbone of insurgency in Nigeria has been broken.

Mohammed said Boko Haram members are like other Citizens like the elsewhile Niger Delta militants in Nigeria have been deprived basic amenities including health, Education and forced to fend for themselves for survival.

But she admitted that the Nigerian government need to rejig her security apparatus to stem the wave of banditry, kidnappings and other criminal activities that have reached all times high in the nation.

The UN Deputy Secretary General of the UN who recently reappointed for a second term in the position, added that the interventions of the international Organization and support has helped to rehabilitate, reintegrate ex-militants and Boko Haram members who have renowned their membership in Nigeria as a matter of celebrate policy.

According to her, “We have reintegrated hundreds of Boko Haram members. They are not bandits. They are just like you and I. Some are going to schools. For those that had been reintegrated, just like we did to militants in the Niger Delta, there is hope and that is happening with the UN support.

“We did things like that by trying to take people out of crime by giving them hopes and support to come back from where they are.

“So, I think that there is migration.
The backbone of insurgency is broken and then what you have are many people looking for places to go. Then you have people who are ready to feel that. You will have kidnapping and banditry, the security apparatus of this Country would have to address. It is really not doing well enough right now absolutely because insurgency and the criminality in the Country have being all times high from what we have seen in the last few years.

“But this is the same like we have seen in many parts of West Africa. We are right now very worried about that is happening in Libya. Libya we can say Hallelujah. There is ceasefire. They are moving to ceasefire. Elections and so on. Libya is on the road to where it should have being many years ago.

“But all the insurgents and the people in arms conflicts are coming to the South looking for greener pasture and that is the biggest crisis that we have now because some of the criminals are coming from North East Nigeria through the Lake Chad. It would come down to join what we have in the sea pirates which is the highest around the world at the moment.

The UN envoy also sued for regional and international collaboration in area of intelligence and military support to assist the troubled Countries in Africa to over the security challenges.

“So, we do have a lot of issues and the international Communities do have to come and help us with intelligence and support in terms of the hardware that are required to fight it. Again, we also need to have a strategy of how we are going to do that internally.

“We (UN) are planning to accompany the military transition in Chad to a peaceful election so that there can be democracy in that Country. Is that going to be easy? Certainly no.

“In the cause of this transition, those issues around resource, resources control and access would be properly structured and addressed.

“If I look at the root causes of what we are seeing here in Nigeria in terms of Boko Haram, we find the same thing in Mozambique”, she said.

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