Support Youth to build Peace in Nigeria

Twenty (25) CSO leaders participated in a 2-Day Capacity Building Workshop on Countering Violent Extremism, De-Radicalization and Re-Integration in Northern Nigeria. The training was organized by New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation, at the INTER-GENDER Conference Hall, Rayfield, Jos, Nigeria, from 3^rd- 4^th March, 2017, with support from the Global Center on Cooperative Security.  This Workshop was the second, as part of the 6-month “Strengthening Citizens Against Radicalization Through Leadership and Re-integration Training in Northern Nigeria- (Project SCARLIT)”. The next training session will hold in April 2017

The overall Goal of the project is to prevent the radicalization of youth by strengthening the capacity of local citizens and community organizations through base-level psycho-social training and tools that foster peace and dialogue engagement to support successful rehabilitation and reintegration.

The radicalization of youth, especially in Northern Nigeria continues to maintain the epicenter of terrorism and terrorist activities. Most of the terrorist attacks in the country have been carried out by local youth radicalized and recruited by Boko Haram. This has evolved over time whereby a section of young people, are introduced to an overtly ideological message and belief system that encourages them to move from beliefs that are generally moderate and mainstream, towards very extreme views, which are violent in nature. This has been manifested in the committing of violent terrorist acts, burning of churches, targeting of religious leaders, security agencies and security installations. Attacks in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi and Plateau States, and Abuja, etc, have nurtured fear and suspicion among Muslims and Christians, and could tilt the balance of inter-religious harmony and threaten to trigger religious violence in the country. The country’s social fabric has also been threatened by pitting communities against communities and religious groups against one another as exemplified by attacks on mosques, churches and clergy. Radicalization has affected the family structure as youth have split away from family and community to join violent extremist groups. Most of the radicalized youths have undergone military training on the use of explosives and are capable of launching lethal attacks which aside from the loss of lives and property, could undermine state stability and therefore regional stability.