During the first week of this year, Islamist militants captured a army base in Borno, Nigeria,
and reportedly massacred hundreds of civilians in nearby towns. These satellite images show
the aftermath of the violence. It was part of a string of escalating attacks
by Boko Haram — the same group that kidnapped more than 270 high school students last year.
The group dates back to 2001, but became much more violent starting in 2009. In the past
few years, the attacks have grown increasingly frequent and brutal, threatening to destabilize
Africa’s most populous country. Boko Haram wants to replace Nigeria’s democratic
government with an extremist theocracy. Still, because they operate out of the northeastern
states, most of their victims have been the poorer, Muslim communities that live there.
Broadly speaking, Nigeria’s population is split between Christians, mostly in the south,
and Muslims, mostly in the North. This dates back to British colonial rule,
when distinct ethno-linguistic societies were stitched together to form Nigeria’s current
borders. Poverty, health, and literacy are worse in
the North than in the South and the violence only contributes to the marginalization of
the region. Poor government, high unemployment and low school attendance set the stage for
Boko Haram. And the government’s security forces have
alienated much of the North by at times doing nothing to stop the attacks and at other times
detaining and killing people indiscriminately. An investigative report by Frontline revealed
that civilian militias working with the Nigerian military have carried out mass executions
of seemingly innocent men.. The government’s inability to contain Boko
Haram became a major campaign issue in the lead up to this year's national elections.
Both President Goodluck Jonathan, and his opponent, former dictator Mohammadu Buhari
promised to stamp out the insurgency. Jonathan, a Christian, was already really unpopular
in much of the North. When he ran for office in 2011, he violated an informal agreement
that the presidency would alternate between a Muslim and a Christian every 8 years. Hundreds
of people were killed in the riots that followed that election.
So when Nigeria postponed the 2015 elections by 6 weeks, citing security concerns, the
delay was viewed by many as a political move to help Jonathan regain ground lost to his
opponent. In the meantime, neighboring countries agreed
to send forces to battle Boko Haram, which now controls most of the state of Borno and
has declared a “caliphate” there. But ultimately it will take much more than
military force to make Nigeria inhospitable to terrorism.