In 2018, President Paul Biya created the National Committee on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (NCDDR) by Decree No. 2018/719. The mission was clear: collect the guns, demobilize the fighters, and reintegrate them into society. Centres were opened in Bamenda, Buea, and other regions.
Eight years into the crisis that began in 2016 in the North-West and South-West Regions, we have learned a hard truth: it is easier to collect a gun than to rebuild a life.
Disarmament and demobilization have moved,
even if slowly. Reintegration — the ‘R’ in DDR — remains the weakest link. And
without the ‘R’, the whole chain breaks.
International data is sobering. Studies of
DDR programmes from Sierra Leone to Colombia show that nearly 70% fail not
because fighters refuse to disarm, but because after disarmament, there is
nothing. No education. No job. No counselling. No community to receive them. A
young man who surrenders his rifle in Bamenda today and returns to a village
that calls him a traitor, with no skill and no hope, will likely pick up
another rifle tomorrow.
This is not a military problem. It is a human
problem. And that is why our universities must now step in.
Why
Universities? Why Now?
The University of Bamenda and the
University of Buea cannot conduct military disarmament. That is not their job.
But they hold the largest concentration of
skills our region needs for real reintegration: agronomists who can teach
sustainable farming, engineers who can teach building construction and solar
installation, psychologists who can offer trauma counselling, historians and
sociologists who understand our cultures of forgiveness, and entrepreneurs who
can teach how to turn a skill into a livelihood.
On 18 January 2024, the University of
Bamenda and the North-West Regional Assembly signed a Memorandum of
Understanding for research, internships, and mobilization of expertise.
Cameroon Tribune reported it on 23 January 2024. That agreement was visionary.
Now is the time to give it life.
If there is one area where that MoU must
be operationalized urgently, it is DDR.
Five
Practical Steps to Secure Reintegration
We propose a pilot, costed at 120 million
FCFA for 18 months, for 300 ex-combatants and at-risk youth per year. It rests
on five pillars:
1.
Education-for-Reintegration Track
Within UBa’s Higher Technical Teachers’
Training College (HTTTC), Higher Teachers’ Training College (HTTC) and the
National Polytechnic, create a 6 to 12-month accelerated certification. Not
long degrees, but practical skills: agriculture, building construction,
electrical installation, ICT maintenance, entrepreneurship. Every course must include
trauma-informed counselling, basic literacy, and civic education. Upon
graduation, each learner receives not just a certificate, but a toolkit and a
small stipend to start.
Why do our youth join armed groups? Why do
they leave? What makes a community in Kom, Bafut, Bakweri or Moghamo forgive
and re-accept a returnee? What happens to graduates of the current DDR centres
in Bamenda and Buea? We do not know, because we have not studied it locally.
UBa and UB should create an Interdisciplinary DDR Research Observatory that
publishes short, 4-page policy briefs for the NCDDR and Regional Assembly every
quarter — not just academic papers hidden in libraries.
3.
Community Readiness and Anti-Stigma Campaign
Reintegration fails when communities
reject returnees. You cannot reintegrate a fighter into a community that is
afraid of him. Universities should lead dialogues in 10 pilot municipalities,
bringing together traditional rulers, women’s groups, faith leaders, and
ex-combatants themselves to document our own reconciliation rituals and build a
social contract for return.
4. University-NCDDR Evaluation Partnership
Today, NCDDR has no independent public
data on outcomes. How many DDR graduates have jobs after 12 months? How many
are accepted by their families? How many return to arms? Universities should
sign a data-sharing protocol with NCDDR to track these figures and publish an
annual, anonymized DDR Outcomes Report. Trust is built on truth.
5.
Prevention is Cheaper than DDR
The best DDR is to prevent recruitment in
the first place. Every student who stays in university, learns a skill, and
sees a future is one less youth for armed groups to recruit. Investment in
scholarships, safe campuses, and relevant curricula is not an expense; it is
DDR prevention. As we say in our villages, our universities have the yam and
the knife. The yam is their knowledge. The knife is their ability to turn that
knowledge into livelihoods.
What
Will Success Cost and Look Like?
The pilot will cost about 120 million
FCFA: 75M for the education track, 20M for the research observatory, 15M for
community dialogues, 10M for evaluation. This can be funded from the Regional
Assembly investment budget, MINESUP, NCDDR, UNDP, UNESCO, and the World Bank.
Success is measurable: 70% of graduates
employed or self-employed within 12 months, reduction in stigma in host
communities, zero new recruitment from pilot communities, and at least two
evidence-based policy reforms adopted by NCDDR based on university research.
The Bottom Line
Let us be clear: disarmament collects
guns. Demobilization breaks ranks. Only reintegration builds citizens.
Our universities cannot collect guns, but
they can build citizens. In the North-West and South-West, that is the highest
contribution they can make to Positive Peace.
It is time to move from signing MoUs to
showing results. The guns must be silenced, but more importantly, lives must be
rebuilt.
The yam and the knife are in our hands. It
is time to use them.
By
Fultang Francis Ngong-Peacebuilding
and Conflict Transformation Expert October 2026
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