Hundreds of members of Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist terror group, have defected after the death of the sect’s leader this year.
Nigeria’s military has said that more than 1,000 Boko Haram fighters and family members have surrendered to the government and renounced the group’s jihadism in recent weeks.
Separately, authorities in neighbouring Cameroon also said more than 260 of the group’s members had turned themselves in at a deradicalisation centre in the north of the country.
Among those to surrender in Nigeria are the group’s top bomb expert and his second in command, said General Onyema Nwachukwu, a military spokesman. Most are women and children.
Some defectors were photographed at a ceremony bearing placards with slogans such as “Peace is the only way” and
