It’s almost Boko Haram’s 20th birthday. That’s right, nearly 20 years old!
Most people think of Boko Haram as a new organisation, probably emerging in the last five years or so but in actual fact its first recorded activity was in 2002 and its first attack was in 2003. So, what is Boko Haram and should we be worried?
Mohammad Yusuf formed Boko Haram in 2002, its aims were to establish an Islamic State in Nigeria whilst opposing Western education and secularisation. Boko Haram is a Sunni sect, and its primary base of operation is north-eastern Nigeria, but it has strayed into Cameroon and Niger for limited operations. As recently as December 2020 fifty Nigerian refugees are feared killed after an attack by Boko Haram militants who also burned down residents’ houses in Tumuk town, Diffa region, Niger.
With the predominant goal of seeking to separate themselves from secular society Boko Haram was less politically focused before 2009 but open conflict erupted in July when militants refused to adhere to a law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets. This incident incited violent uprisings in Bauchi and quickly spread to the regions of Borno, Yobe, and Kano. Nigerian military forces killed over 700 in suppressing the uprisings and captured Yusuf. According to the BBC, security forces later killed Yusuf, claiming that he had tried to escape.
With Mohammad Yusuf’s death and increased conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government, Boko Haram came to seek the overthrow of the Nigerian government and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.
In 2010 the second in command of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau re-organised the group and became its leader. He forged a greater cooperation with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). As a result, the frequency, lethality, and sophistication of Boko Haram’s attacks increased dramatically.
The group has carried out numerous attacks since 2009, including the 2011 bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Abuja, but is best known for the 2014 Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping, when the group abducted over 300 young Nigerian girls. Just over 50 girls were able to escape immediately after the attack. Seven months later the government announced that it had negotiated a ceasefire with Boko Haram and that the schoolgirls would be released shortly. However, within two weeks of the announcement, Boko Haram released a video in which Shekau denied the ceasefire and claimed that the missing girls had already been converted to Islam and were married to Boko Haram members. As of January 2018, only 106 girls had been rescued. In December 2020 400 school children were kidnapped from the Katsina state by motorcycle bandits, this modus operandum is a known tactic by Boko Haram. The Fulani people have been blamed for the incident and these are also well-known collaborators with Boko Haram.
The African Union (AU) endorsed a military coalition consisting of 7,500 troops from Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin, to contain and degrade Boko Haram’s activities in Nigeria in March 2015. This followed the Independent National Electoral Commission announcing that the Nigerian elections would have to be postponed by six weeks in February 2015. Despite the postponement and the increase in troops, Boko Haram killed 41 people on Election Day in an attempt to keep voters from the polling stations.
The violence around the elections coincided with Boko Haram pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in an audio message posted online, featuring Shekau. Reportedly, Boko Haram militants were traveling to train at IS military camps at that time. When IS accepted the pledge in late March, it referred to Boko Haram as the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP). IS also encouraged Muslims to join Boko Haram and other West African militant groups.
In 2016, IS announced that Abu Musab al-Barnawi, son of the founder of Boko Haram, would assume leadership. Contested by Shekau this led to a split within Boko Haram. Two factions, known as Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) led by Barnawi, and Jama’atu Ahl al-Sunnah lil-Dawa wal-Jihad (JAS) led by Shekau. Despite this governments and media often describe them as one group - Boko Haram. JAS is considered stronger, more active, and also more transnational in its operations by many.
So, should we be worried about Boko Haram? Well, the Boko Haram uprising was not the first forceful attempt to impose a religious ideology on a secular Nigerian society. The Maitatsine uprisings of 1980 in Kano, 1982 in Kaduna and Bulumkutu, 1984 in Yola, and 1985 in Bauchi, are considered the first attempts at imposing a religious ideology on a secular, independent Nigeria, marked the beginning of ferocious conflict and crises in Nigeria (Adesoji, 2010). This was one of many crises throughout the latter part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century. Is this latest crisis with Boko Haram any different?
The literal translation Boko Haram is “Western Education is Unlawful” and Boko Haram rejects this designation and prefer the slogan translated as “Western Culture is Unlawful” (Osisanwo, 2020), this leaves little room for interpretation of their agenda. To understand the impact of Boko Haram we must first consider the complexities of Nigerian culture and its history.
Nigeria has a rich ancient history with skilled artisans and ironworkers flourishing over 1000 years ago. Much of present-day Nigeria was divided into states centuries ago, these can still be linked to the modern ethnic groups that trace their history to the origins of these states. During the 16th century, Nigeria was part of the Songhai Empire (Islamic), with Northern Nigeria being subjected to the Sayfawa Dynasty of Borno (Islamic). During the 1400s Portugal (Catholic) started the Nigerian transatlantic slave trade; this was later continued by the Dutch (Catholic) and then the British (Catholic/Christian*). By the end of the eighteenth century, the area that was to become Nigeria was far from a unified country. Furthermore, the orientation of north and south was entirely different. The savanna states of Hausaland and Borno in the north had continued in a centuries-long tradition of slow political and economic change that was similar to other parts of the savanna (and predominantly Islamic). The southern areas near the coast, by contrast, had been swept up in the transatlantic slave trade (and therefore predominantly Catholic). In the early 17th century, the Northern part of Nigeria was involved in the Islamic holy war of Usman dan Fodio established the Sokoto Caliphate, during a similar period Great Britain declared the transatlantic slave trade to be illegal, the shift in trade had serious economic and political consequences in the interior, which led to increasing British intervention in the affairs of Yorubaland and the Niger Delta.
In 1960 Nigeria became an independent state within the commonwealth. The period from the 1960s through to the late 1990s was plagued with discontent, military leadership, corruption, and coups. The country was generally very unstable. In 1998 there was a transition to a civilian government, and this remains in place today but has not improved stability. In 2000 religious tensions spiked following the imposition of sharia law in the North causing the government to announce a state of emergency in the Plateau State. Ethnic discord notably in the south-eastern state of Benue, and with the Ijaw tribe who claim the government does not fairly distribute the wealth generated from oil are also causes of major disruption.
Given the deep-seated instability within the country, the region, and the rise of Islamic State within other countries, particularly Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISGS), Boko Haram poses a significant threat to the country, the region, and democracy. The discourse is not dissimilar to that of Sudan that had a long civil war and was eventually split into South Sudan (predominantly Christian) and Northern Sudan (predominantly Islamic).
* The author is aware that Catholicism is a form of Christianity. However, the form of Catholicism preached in the earlier phases of colonialism changed significantly by the time the British took over in Nigeria.
Sources:
Adesoji, A., 2010. The boko haram uprising and Islamic revivalism in Nigeria. Africa spectrum, 45(2), pp.95-108.
BBC News 2016. Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13809501
Mapping Militant Organizations. “Boko Haram”. Stanford University. Last modified March 2018. https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/boko-haram
Omotola, B., 2014. Between Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen: organized crime and insecurity in Nigeria. A paper presented at the 5th Institute of Security Studies. In Conference on crime and crime reduction 14th and 15th August Sandton: South Africa.
Osisanwo, A., 2020. Visual Representations of Newspaper Reportage of Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria. American Journal of Art and Design, 5(4), pp.103-112.
REF World. 2008. Country Profile – Nigeria. https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=type&docid=4950afd00&skip=0&type=COUNTRYPROF&querysi=nigeria&searchin=title&sort=date[Accessed December 2020].
Photo by Namnso Ukpanah on Unsplash