The Islamist extremist group Boko Haram
has terrorized Nigeria and neighboring countries for over a decade.
Suicide bombings, the burning of villages and mass kidnappings like the abduction of more
than 200 school girls from the town of Chibok, have left thousands dead and millions displaced.
This has really tested Nigeria to the point that certain parts of the country
are not under the control of the government. So how did the group become such a threat for so
long and why has the fight to eradicate it failed? Let us unpack that for you.
It’s hard to imagine now but when Boko Haram first emerged
it was largely peaceful, winning over followers with its opposition to Nigeria's ruling class.
The group was founded in the early 2000s here, in the north-eastern town of Maiduguri
in Borno state. An especially impoverished part of the country.
Its leader was a charismatic cleric by the name of Muhammed Yusuf.
He argued that rampant corruption, mismanagement and a lack of opportunities for ordinary Nigerians
were the result of a secular government too influenced by the West.
Yusuf called for an Islamic state based on his hardline interpretation of Sharia law instead,
convincing his followers this would bring them justice.
It was just a sect that had been able to garner a following not just in the north-eastern
part of the country but across Nigeria. Tomi Oladipo has reported on Boko Haram for years
and spoken to many of its members. People might disagree with the need
for a Sharia leadership, but there is no disputing that the secular governance that we have
is corrupt and that everybody sees it in Nigeria. Boko Haram's activities took a dramatic turn in
2009, when its members waged an armed uprising. And that has since gone on to become an all out
war, in a sense. In the clashes which followed,
800 people died. Among them was the leader Muhammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody.
Nigerian authorities actually thought they defeated the group and declared victory.
But Boko Haram soon reemerged under the leadership of Abu Bakr Shekau, Yusuf’s former deputy.
He sees anyone who rejects Boko Haram's authority as an opponent and a fair target for the group.
That includes Muslims or even children. The next couple of years would be devastating for Nigeria.
In 2011, Boko Haram targeted the UN complex in the capital Abuja, killing 23 people.
In 2014, also in the capital, the group killed nearly 100 people with a bomb at a bus stop.
Later that same day, the group abducted the Chibok schoolgirls, an act that shocked the world.
It was also around that time that group started seizing territory
At its peak it controlled 20 local government areas,
estimated to be roughly the size of Belgium. As [Boko Haram] became more militant,
it started to try to recruit forcibly, in certain towns and villages it would conquer and it would
take the men and force them, especially the young men, force them to become fighters. We've
also seen the use of children as well. We see these militants as they move
across northeast Nigeria, they tend to engage with communities and they tend to
tax these communities. There are farming communities, trading communities and they'll
have to pay money or give some of their produce to these militants in exchange for safety. And
we see that this is how these groups creep from one area to the other and expand their control.
Change in the make-up of Boko Haram has also exacerbated its threat,
making it more difficult to control.
Over the years it has split into multiple factions, each having a different,
albeit violent agenda. Shekau still leads one faction. The “Original” Boko Haram so to speak,
maintains the extremely violent approach that has defined the group so far.
Another prominent faction known as the Islamic State in West Africa Province, or ISWAP,
is aligned with ISIS. ISWAP is critical of Shakau’s indiscriminate
use of violence against Muslim civlians. It has promised to concentrate its attacks
largely on Christians. Another smaller splinter group
is known as Ansaru. It has claimed high-value targets such as foreigners in Nigeria.
The splitting should have weakened the threat against the Nigerian force,
because we have seen in-fighting between these factions. It should have been something that
the nigerian forces should have been able to take advantage of but they haven't really.
As much as these groups are a threat to each other they still remain a threat to the state and if one
group is defeated there is still another group left to fight. So regardless of the threat that
they pose they pose a longer threat and I think that is a problem at the moment.
But this threat didn't appear in a vacuum. The Nigerian government has played its part
in the ongoing violence - particularly thanks to its lack of a sustainable security strategy.
If you defeat the group in one town and then you move on to the next town,
if you leave that town empty, the group can always come back. The famous town Chibok,
where hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted, has been attacked several times since
that abduction. So it's clear that there's no adequate security on the ground.
And that’s not all. Corruption and mismanagement have plagued the
Nigeran government’s efforts to crush Boko Haram, sowing mistrust among the civilian population.
Videos like these of soldiers claiming they are not well
equipped to fight the group have surfaced often. If you look over the past few years, we've seen
Nigerian senior military chiefs after they leave office, they're being tried for corruption.
The national security adviser from a few years ago had been facing a corruption case. So these
are the people who should have been equipping and leading Nigeria's forces against the enemy.
Experts also say that Nigeria's military focuses on conventional combat,
leaving it poorly equipped to fight a group that uses the tactics of guerrilla warfare.
These are people who are out to fight to the death. These are people who know the terrain
very well. They know the language very well. They know the area.They don't wear
uniforms like an army sometimes. And so they are able to have informants everywhere and
move around. And that makes it harder for the army to operate. They know the people.
That is why eliminating this insurgency can't rely on military might alone.
For it to really work the Nigerian government has to win the trust of the people.
Amnesty International says that in its fight to eradicate Boko Haram,
the Nigerian military has also committed human rights violations such as arbitrary executions.
You have to bring the people on your side. And to be frank, there is a mistrust of the Nigerian
state, of the Nigerian security forces right across the country. The Nigerian authorities
need to prove to the people that they can be trusted. So the people need to be shown that
if they are freed from the control of Boko Haram, they are now under the control of a better
leadership, which is the government, rather than going from one oppressor to another.