**6. Conclusions**

This article aimed to examine the challenges confronting stakeholders in addressing the various strategies and methods of recruitment used by the Boko Haram terrorist group across the Lake Chad region. To do that, the article focused on understanding the recruitment strategies of terrorist organizations within the context of Boko Haram, assessed the various countermeasures by relevant stakeholders at the national, sub-regional, and regional levels and the challenges confronting them in curbing the threat of terrorist recruitment across the Lake Chad region.

The findings of the article sugges<sup>t</sup> that Boko Haram, like most terrorist organizations, sustains itself by recruiting individuals and groups to carry out its attacks. It achieves that by applying various methods and tactics such as the *false of promise of better welfare and economic condition* in a society characterized by unemployment, poverty, and the absence of basic services for the people. Through abductions, kidnappings, and threats, individuals and groups are *forcefully conscripted* into joining Boko Haram. Using *cash loans* as a means to trap unsuspecting struggling traders by being willing to support their businesses is another strategy used by the terrorist group to recruit people. Finally, the instrumentalization of *religion and advancement in information technology, particularly the internet and its social media tools*, by the terrorists as a vehicle and a tool to radicalize individuals constitutes another strategy used by Boko Haram for recruitment. They brainwash unsuspecting individuals into believing that Western civilization is not only *haram* (forbidden), but underscores the essence of traditional family, religious, and societal values exhorted by *Islam*. Rogue clerics use this negative narrative to attract individuals into joining the movement into believing they are contributing to e ffecting meaningful social change in society.

The response by stakeholders to counter these strategies included various initiatives, policies, and legislation such as the National Action Plan for Countering Violent Extremism, the Regional Strategy

<sup>40</sup> Interview with a Senior Lecturer and Cross-Cultural Negotiator with the Department of History and International Studies, University of Jos, Nigeria, 8 September 2019.

<sup>41</sup> Interview, 8 September 2019.

for the Stabilization, Recovery, and Resilience among other multilateral engagements, which yielded minimal results. This is because stakeholders involved in combating the threat of Boko Haram are grappling with challenges relating to the inability to contextually identify the best strategy or approach to confront terrorism recruitment and terrorism in the region. As most terrorist organizations use violence to achieve their aims, countering their threat requires actors to understand the context and local dynamics that drive each terrorist group to determine the right strategy to prevent such groups. Another challenge identified in countering Boko Haram's recruitment strategy is centered on the gap or deficit in technology and the lack of trust among actors to identify, share, and report threat forces. For example, the lack of trust between o fficers of the MNJTF and members of a ffected communities has led to them accusing each other as acting as informants for the terrorists. This a ffects the e fforts to counter the activities of Boko Haram across Lake Chad. The third challenge is related to the inability of the state and its various agencies to show the capacity to coerce and convince citizens that it has the ability to address the threat of insecurity across the Lake Chad region. This is due to di fferent factors such as the failure of the state to implement various counterterrorism policies and initiatives, and the failure to secure and protect national and regional borders, thus creating an avenue for terrorist organizations to recruit and carry out various crimes. There is a lack of inter-agency collaboration to limit the activities of Boko Haram across Lake Chad, thus leading to a failure to address the endemic corruption of stakeholders involved in containing Boko Haram's presence in the northeast and Lake Chad.

Therefore, the article o ffers its recommendations and also suggests avenues for further studies as it relates to the measures to be taken by these actors in countering the challenges associated with counter-terrorist recruitment across the Lake Chad region:


<sup>42</sup> Refers to a traditional community policing strategy where communities set up cells or clusters and meet regularly by sharing their security concerns and report suspected activities in their locality.

<sup>43</sup> Phone Interview with a Senior Research Fellow at the Fort Hall School of Government in Nairobi, Kenya, 9 September 2019.

<sup>44</sup> Phone Interview, 9 September 2019.


**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, K.D.M. and U.K.; methodology, K.D.M., U.K. and S.A.; formal analysis, K.D.M., U.K. and S.A.; writing—original draft preparation, K.D.M.; writing—review and editing, K.D.M., U.K. and S.A.; supervision, U.K. and S.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
