Civilians perception towards Nigerian military changed positively – CIVIC

Chidima Blyden is the Director, Africa Program, Center for Civilians in Confl ict (CIVIC), a Washington DC-based Non-Governmental Organisation that advocates protection of civilians in confl ict areas across the globe, as well as prevention of civilian casualties during armed confl icts. In this interview with MUSA UMAR BOLOGI, she speaks on civilians perception of the military campaign against Boko Haram insurgency, and how far the government and the military have implemented some of the suggestions and recommendations in its 2015 report. Excerpts:

What are those things that have been done diff erently by the military since the CIVIC’s report of 2015? We have seen an increase in the way people brought attention to the idea that civilians are not always being protected in the operational theater. We have seen an interest in our work, which means that there is recognition that there have been challenges in the relationship between the security forces and civilians. We have had increased dialogue between the community and security forces, which has enable them to openly talk about their grievances.

I think there is still room for continued improvement on this. Th ere are still challenges. We are still getting information from the Nigerian Armed Forces about the Rann bombing, and what happened there. And I think there is defi nitely room for transparency of what happened at the point; more details about the report; things that should be shared with civilians. I think that the Nigerian Armed Forces should come to term with some of the gaps that are still within their style of operations that put protection of civilians at the forefront.

The Defence Headquarters in its recent report on the Rann bombing said the place was not properly marked as Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) camp. What is your opinion on this? I don’t think we have seen the full report. So we call on them to release the full report, if possible. From the statement that they made that the area wasn’t marked properly, I think we have to go by what they say. But that being said there is defi nitely a need to go and mark those IDPs camps. Th e fact that they recognised that there was something that was lacking, which was the marking of the IDPs camps, there is a defi nite step that should be taken to improve the relationship between the civilians and soldiers, as well as making sure that where they do their operations are clearly identifi ed and marked before they go out to the operation theater. What is CIVIC doing to educate civilians on selfprotection, so that they don’t have to wait for the military for protection? Self-protection strategies are things the communities can do on their own. Th ings as simple as going out in partner peers when they go out to collect fi rewood, rather than going out alone and being susceptible to being kidnapped or meeting Boko Haram on the road. Forming and working with the security actors in the community is another self-protection strategy that people can do, rather than always waiting for things to get to the worst level before they respond, or waiting for the military or the Police to respond. Are you saying there are improvements in areas of civilians’ self-protection now than before? I think with the communities that we talk to about what self-protection is many of them are already doing it themselves. Th ey may not be calling it that, but they understand there are some precautions that they can take themselves. Th ey understand that they should always have money kept somewhere their families are aware of, in case of an emergency. Th ey know the meeting points where they can reconvene if they ever get separated. Th ese are things that families talk about on their own, but they don’t realise how helpful it can be in a crisis situation. We might have called it self-protection strategies, but I think it is working in communities where they have identifi ed for themselves what the need for them are, and how they respond to this in their creative ways. How is CIVIC collaborating with the military to educate troops on civilians protection before they are introduced to the theater of operation? It is a good idea that everybody has some sort of baseline training or understanding of how protection of civilians is important whenever they are deployed. Th e reality is that there is not always an opportunity to make sure that people have the kind of training that will allow them to respond always in that way. Th at is a challenge that is not peculiar to the Nigerian military; it is the remnant of being in an active confl ict zone. CIVIC will love to have the opportunity to train every troop before they are deployed to the theater. And the idea is that we will be able to meet every one of those troops and give them a solid foundation and training before they go to the theater of operation. We know time may not always allow for it, but we will encourage it. Th is is why we are developing curriculum and information that can be institutionalised in the military training schools, so that no matter what level you are operating within the Nigerian Armed Forces you are getting grounding in protection of civilians throughout your career, and not when you have to be deployed to operational theater. Th is is the hope, especially now that most militaries will ensure that protection of civilians is in the forefront of any training that is being conducted. You talked about negative perception of the military by civilians in the confl ict zone in your last report. Has that changed? At this time we have not done direct follow up to that report. But our engagement is not only with the military but the communities and civilians we have been working with. I think the opportunity to be able to engage them has changed their perception. I can’t tell you to what degree, because I think it is personal to anybody that is working in the communities; and there are a lot of factors that has to do with that. But I think the idea that they can actually talk to a military offi cer about their grievances and challenges in the way they engage has changed the perception or mindset of the civilians towards military. What role have you played in reducing casualties or collateral damages during operations in the North east? We have been fortunate to speak on these issues at multiple levels. We have spoken to middle level and junior offi cers. We have also spoken on the issue in Mubi, Adamawa state, with junior level offi cers. So there is a range of offi cers that we are able to speak with on these issues, and we enforce some of the training that they received before. What is the outcome? We do a baseline assessment at the beginning of our workshops to understand what knowledge the soldiers are coming in with; and we administer survey at the end to understand what new knowledge they have picked up. We try not to talk of any sort of social theory of how much has changed within a day or couple of days of workshops, but hope that over time when this is enforced it will become something that will be regular part of training that offi cers and soldiers will continue to understand that these concepts are important, not specifi cally when they are in operations, but as regular part of their duties as offi cers or soldiers. What is the CIVIC perception of Nigerian military now, vis-à-vis its report of 2015? Based on our report of 2015, what we came out with was that there were a lot of challenges; but I think that the fact that the Nigerian military has taken some step to addressing some of these challenges, as part of their profession in fi ghting the insurgency, is a good development. Nothing can be the same as it were in 2015. Th ere most be a diff erence. I won’t say that it was necessarily better or worse. I will just say it has been diff erent. And this is because the military has taken up the challenges, and is trying to do better about addressing them in a way that is responsive to what they need for their operations. What is the correlation between rotation and civilians’ protection? Th e soldiers themselves at the end of the day are civilians as well. Th ey have issues just like any other civilian does; including work, job, and welfare issues. How the Nigerian military has put in mechanism to deal with that I am not clear on. I will say that there are a lot of factors that could infl uence how somebody operates in the protection of civilians, and some of the factors may be some of the social welfare issues or rotation issues. I think that is an issue that the military should try and address, as they actively try to fi ght at the same time. When are we expecting next report from CIVIC? We will have to do another report, because the insurgency is not yet over. However, I will anticipate that we will like to do one next year, just to see what progress has been made and what has been done. Th e nature of our programmes has changed a little bit, so our report may not necessarily be the only outcome we try to infl uence users’ intervention for our programming. We will try to do more programming, more community dialogues, more facilitating, of what transmit between the military and civilians. We are working towards developing a curriculum that can be institutionalised. We are still working with the government to try and push a national policy in place on civilians protection in confl ict zone.

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