This virtual roundtable discussion was co-hosted by United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), Mercy Corps Nigeria, and Innovations for Poverty Action Nigeria.
Over 5,000 former fighters defected from Boko Haram in the summer of 2021, and many more are in government facilities awaiting to return home. In this event, new research on what communities think about former members of Boko Haram — and how they are reacting to fighters returning home — was presented.
Findings from UNU-CPR's Managing Exits from Armed Conflict surveys described current trends in community acceptance, and an experiment — run by a consortium of academics in partnership with Mercy Corps Nigeria, and with support from Innovations for Poverty Action — analyzed how apologies from former fighters and messages from religious leaders can change community members’ minds and shift norms about acceptance.
