CLEEN Foundation organized a three-Day Workshop on Inter-Agency Collaboration for State & Non-State Actors in Borno State. The workshop was aimed at promoting a cordial working relationship between State and Non-State Actors in response to human rights violations by state and non-state actors in countering violent extremism in Borno State.
This is to ensure that there is respect for the rights of Nigerians by the security agencies in the war against insurgency currently going on in different parts of the country.
The workshop brought together key state and non-state actors including security agencies, civil society and community-based groups, media professionals, traditional and religious leaders, Civilian Joint Task Force, Hunters Association, Academia, Police Oversight Agencies, Office of the National Security Adviser, the Military, Para-military, and other key experts to brainstorm and share good practices of working together in response to the activities of violent extremists in the North-East beginning from Borno state.
As an outcome of the workshop, participants produced a working strategy for state and non-state actors involved in CVE in Borno State to guide the activities of state and non-state actors in Borno State. The commitment from participants to work together in response to the security challenges in Borno State was a welcome development and a key achievement at the workshop.
CLEEN will advocate with the leadership of the various agencies for the document to be made operational and meet quarterly to resolve issues if any that arose within the quarter. The project implementation is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
The workshop provided a platform for discussion on issues affecting counter-insurgency strategy in Borno state and proffered implementable recommendations on how to improve on the security challenges with specific roles of the various agencies documented in a working strategy for state and non-state actors.
Another major outcome of the workshop are stories of human rights abuses in the State’s Counter-Insurgency Operations.
They called for public hearing for victims of human rights violations to share their experiences.

Chigozirim Okoro, CLEEN Foundation