Kehinde Fajobi
Boko Haram has adopted new, disturbing tactics to recruit fighters after losing its territorial strongholds, according to Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa.
Musa shared the revelation in an interview with Arise News on Monday, detailing the group’s shift in strategy. He explained that, in the past, Boko Haram forced adults to join their ranks or face beheading.
“In the past, they would capture communities and force men, especially adults, to join them. They would be beheaded if they refused. So they had no choice,” Musa said.
However, the group’s loss of territory led to a shift in their methods. Instead of forcibly conscripting adult men, Boko Haram began impregnating women in an effort to create a new generation of terrorists.
Musa explained that women were repeatedly impregnated shortly after giving birth, with the aim of producing children who would be raised in a system normalising violence and terror.
“But now that they no longer have a territory, they decided to start impregnating the women. And what they do is that if a woman gives birth, four months after giving birth, they impregnate her again,” he said.
“This was part of their strategy to produce a new set of terrorists. And to us, those new sets would have been most dangerous,” Musa added.
The defence chief stressed that children born into such an environment would lack empathy and potentially grow into future threats.
Musa expressed relief that many of these children have since surrendered, preventing them from becoming a dangerous force in the future.