This month, RESOLVE highlights recommended readings from our Policy Note, Building Peace through DDR Programs: Lessons from Reintegrating Boko Haram Ex-Recruits in Cameroon. Author Lydie Belporo outlines core findings from a case study of Boko Haram ex-associates’ reintegration process in Cameroon. The note examines how existing community norms or mechanisms might be as useful as more standard approaches to disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) in addressing challenges presented by Boko Haram ex-associates in Cameroon. This What We’re Reading digest was recommended by the authors to give background on deradicalization, DDR and public policy in Africa, and Boko Haram in Cameroon.

On Deradicalization

Clubb, Gordon, and Marina Tapley. “Conceptualising de-radicalisation and former combatant re-integration in Nigeria.” Third World Quarterly 39, no. 11 (2018): 20532068. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1458303.

Gunaratna, Rohan, and Sabariah M. Hussin. Terrorist Deradicalisation in Global Contexts: Success, Failure and Continuity. Routledge, 2019.

Holmer, Georgia, and Adrian Shtuni. Returning Foreign Fighters and the Reintegration Imperative. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, March 2017. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2017-03/sr402-returning-foreign-fighters-and-the-reintegration-imperative.pdf.

Pettinger, Tom. “De-radicalization and Counter-radicalization: Valuable Tools Combating Violent Extremism, or Harmful Methods of Subjugation?.” Journal for Deradicalization 12 (2017): 1-59. https://journals.sfu.ca/jd/index.php/jd/article/view/109/91.

On DDR and Public Policy in Africa

Delville, Philipe Lavigne, and Sylvie Ayimpam. “Public Policy and Public Action in Africa, between Practical Norms, Political Dynamics and Outside Influences.” Anthropologie & développement no. 4849 (2018): 7-23. https://doi.org/10.4000/anthropodev.656.

Rhea, Randolph Wallace. A Comparative Study of Ex-Combatant Reintegration in the African Great Lakes Region : Trajectories, Processes, and Paradoxes. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2014. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23837.

Richards, Joanne. “High Risk or Low Risk: Screening for Violent Extremists in DDR Programmes.” International Peacekeeping 25, no.3 (May 393–373 :(2018 ,27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2018.1440177.

On Boko Haram in Cameroon

Chétima, Melchisedek. “Comprendre Boko Haram à Partir d’une Perspective Historique, Locale et Régionale.” Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines 54, no. 2 (April 28, 2020): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2019.1700814.

Mahamat, Adam. “Opprobre, Discours Clivants et Sociolectes induits par Boko Haram au Cameroun.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 54, no. 2 (2020): 281–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2019.1700812.

Pemboura, Aicha. “The Use of Vigilance Committees in Cameroon: From the Operational Effectiveness to Necessity of Thinking the Post-War.” SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 6, no. 6 (2019): 26-34. https://doi.org/10.14445/23942703/ijhss-v6i6p104.

Seignobos, Christian, and Abdourhaman Nassourou. “Religions.” In Atlas de La Province Extrême-Nord Cameroun, edited by Olivier Iyébi-Mandjek, 145–50. Atlas et Cartes. Marseille: IRD Éditions, 2017. http://books.openedition.org/irdeditions/11596.

Thurston, Alexander. Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/64667.