Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 09-05-2018
A researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says terror group ISIS is dying a slow death.
This comes after an estimated 5 600 Islamic State fighters from at least 33 countries globally have returned to their communities of origin and abandoned the organisation.
In Somalia, by the end of 2017, at least 2 000 former militants from al-Shabaab were reportedly reintegrated into Somali society while in February 2018, a Nigerian court released 475 people suspected of having affiliations with terror group Boko Haram for rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Researcher of Transnational Threats and International Crime at the ISS Uyo Yenwong-Fai says, ISIS is a dwindling group that is losing support.
“They’ve lost territory in Syria and in Iraq and they’ve also suffered some significant losses in terms of human resources and there’s are need for these militants to actually regroup or return to their countries of origin.”
While many agree that returning ISIS fighters should be imprisoned instead of integrated, Yenwong-Fai says there needs to be a proper balance for the need to prosecute or rehabilitate them for the atrocities they committed in foreign lands.
“There are no simple answers to it. It’s one of finding the right balance between the hard measures of prosecuting these former militants and finding them rehabilitation and also making sure the soft measures are properly integrated.”
Yenwong-Fai says due to a lack of an extensive learning framework, a lot of countries are struggling to reintegrate former ISIS fighters into society.
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