The Boko Haram Islamic terror group in Nigeria has been associated with a myriad of hostilities in the recent past including mass bombings and major kidnappings. The recent incident by the group is the brutal bombing and killing of 85 civilians at a village in Northern Nigeria called Dalori. This massive killing, among other atrocities characterize this Islamic extremist group. This manuscript thus appraises this killing among other interrelated activities by the group from a historical perspective. The manuscript equally appraises the reasoning behind the group’s terror activities in Nigeria.
Boko Haram is a terror organization based in Maiduguri, Nigeria. In 2002, Mohammed Yusuf formed Boko Haram aiming at instituting sharia law in the Borno area which was then ruled by the Senator Ali Sheriff (Adesoji 95-108). There has been an anti-terror campaign in Nigeria since then. In July 2009, Boko Haram initiated a vicious operation that has caused more than 3,500 deaths, with the death count escalating almost daily (Agbiboa 25). The militia has orchestrated numerous assaults and bombings, including using suicide bombers in some situations. They have targeted locations such as military facilities, the United Nations building in Abuja, churches, police stations, schools, newspaper offices and beer halls as Uzodike (91) documents. Furthermore, Boko Haram has murdered Muslim priests and local elders in the northern and eastern parts of Nigeria with the allegation of supposed collaboration with government (Agbiboa 29-33).
Boko Haram’s progressively refined and harmonized attacks have been directed to Nigeria’s security forces and also religious groups including Christians in the group’s bid to overthrow the government. The sole objective of the group is to institute Sharia law and form an Islamic rule (Ekot 47). Among the regions which Boko Haram has carried out terrorist activities hitherto from 2013 include Abidjan, Maiduguri, Guzamala, Marte, Kukaa and Gubio regions. The recent attack by the group was however in February 2016 in the area of Dalori in Northern Nigeria where the group killed 85 civilians. In this attack, the civilians were charred beyond reckoning according to official government reports and cattle were equally not spared in the onslaught.
The attack at Dalori village was the groups’ first in the New Year 2016. According to security experts, the attack appeared to have been well planned and included more than eighty militias. Additionally, the attack was one of the bloodiest ever carried out by the group even going by the bloody standards which the group has already set. According to reports by the locals concerning this incident, children cries were heard as the jihadists burned them alive in their homes. Similar to other attacks, the attack at Dalori witnessed a feeble response by the Nigeria Military forces. Despite the many threats posed by the group to the nation and the West African region at large, efforts aimed at talking with the group, have failed. This includes the latest presidential amnesty offer which was given to its members.
The rise of the Islamic terror group is traceable from Nigeria’s history. From the country’s independence in the 1960’s, the country witnessed a shift and growth of the Christian faith more than the Islamic faith which is predominant in the country’s southern parts. Additionally, the 1979 uprising in Iran equally led to widespread calls for sharia law in Nigeria. Efforts to this end where fuelled by the entrance of Saudi funded preachers into Nigeria from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Syria, who preached Wahhabi principles that encouraged a strict enforcement of sharia law from the 1990’s.
Such efforts enable sharia law to be embraced in twelve northern tribes from the 1990s up to 2001. Zamrafa province particularly stands out in this case whereby the governor Ahmed Sani once declared that any leadership offered to the people without its base on sharia law was wrong and that such a leader should be considered an unbeliever (Maiangwa 40-57). Consequentially, many Northern provinces and their governor’s embraced sharia rule and championed for its adoption. There was however opposition in some Northern provinces including Kaduna State where the majority of the populace are Christians. Such opposition led to massive demonstrations and clashes in 2000 against sharia rule and led to more than 2,000 deaths (Ekot 30).
Ever since, Boko Haram turned into a fully-grown revolution that has caused conflicts in most Northern regions of Nigeria. Among the affected areas is Bauchi State. The government mandated motorcyclists in the whole region to put on safety headgears. Followers of the terror islamic group however declined to conform to this law. The clash that followed lead to the death of seventeen Boko Haram members. The security agencies ransacked Boko Haram’s camp in Bauchi State and seized equipment and resources that are used to make explosives. In response to their perceived suppression, Boko Haram prepared its followers for reprisal assaults which caused the deaths of numerous law enforcers and civilians alike (Agbiboa 24-27). The ensued riots were only quelled after the Nigeria army apprehended and executed the leader of Boko Haram Yusuf and arrested most of the group’s followers. The killing of Yusuf pressed the militia to convert itself into a system of secretive underground cells with secret governance – a circumstance that nowadays makes any military operations illusive. Boko Haram shortly declared its comeback with more cutting-edge strategies and overwhelming attacks for example the blasting of police command center in
Abuja which occurred in June 2011 and was shortly followed by an attack on United Nations Headquarters which took place a month after. Between January and November 2012, attacks executed by the Boko Haram led to the death of more than 900 people, a figure more than 2010 and 2011 joined.
The terror group’s modus operandi involves carrying out attacks using hit men riding on motorcycles, the killing cops, statesmen, or anybody threatening the group, comprising of also Muslim clergy who reveal information concerning their locations to government security agencies. One strategy that has become Boko haram’s major tactic is suicide bombing. Its members believe that the unlawful killings have already been atoned for through the murder of their founder Yusuf.
Most recently, Boko Haram targets individual policemen, police patrols and police stations. It targets all police officers whether on duty, off duty, in public places or even the retired ones (Agbiboa 22). The Boko Haram militia group uses makeshift explosive devices, petrol bombs, and armed attacks in their ferocious assaults. Since early 2012, the group started pursuing telecommunication facilities, especially near Mubi in Gongola State. According to the group, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Corporation collaborates with security organs by availing call information to them. In 2012, the group up scaled its attacks on Christians, law officers and purported moderate or liberal Muslims who allegedly liaised with the state or disagreed with the group.
The main objective of Boko Haram is a government take over and an institution of an Islamic state that abides by sharia law. However, it also seeks to free its members who were imprisoned and prosecute those who were accountable for the assassination of its founder. From its activities however, it is evident that the group lacks a solid objective or purpose. However, the group has some form of organization if findings by a recent US House of Representatives research is anything to go by (David 15-20). According to these findings, the group has divisions dedicated to various atrocities. A division in the group may be dedicated to domestic issues whereas another division may be focused on radicalization. Research work into the group also reveals that internal wrangles may have slowed the group’s operations. According to this research (David 16), Boko Haram may have split into three groups. One group is judicious and backs the cessation of violence, the second backs reconciliation while the third group is the most violent that neither supports reconciliation nor a cessation of violence. The last of this groupings is the most radical and one that calls for the radicalization of Nigeria using force.
In the wake of Boko Haram’s activities, various Islamist groups have lately surfaced and distanced themselves from the group’s activities. In 2011 for instance, the Yusufiyya Islamic Movement distributed leaflets in Maiduguri region calling Boko Haram’s atrocities evil and non-Islamic Agbiboa 151). Additionally, a jihadist group has also risen in Nigeria dubbed Ansaru with its founder being Usamatul Ansar. Unlike Boko Haram, the jihadist group claims that it will offer protection to Muslims and will not engage in terror activities unless necessary. Such groups are in stark contrast to Boko Haram and it is hoped that they will play some role in the demise of Boko Haram.
Conclusively, it is clear that Boko Haram’s mercurial rise is due to a history of radicalization and aggressiveness in the Northern states of Nigeria which escalated with the death of their leader Yusuf. The documented attack this year in Dalori is a clear testament to this fact. Boko Haram remains a security threat not only to Nigeria but also to the entire African continent and concerted efforts are needed to contain this threat.
Works Cited
Adesoji, Abimbola. "The Boko Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria/Die Boko- Haram-Unruhen und die Wiederbelebung des Islam in Nigeria." Africa Spectrum (2010): 95-108.
Agbiboa, Daniel Egiegba. "No retreat, no surrender: Understanding the religious terrorism of Boko Haram in Nigeria." (2013).
Agbiboa, Daniel Egiegba. "The Nigerian burden: religious identity, conflict and the current terrorism of Boko Haram." Conflict, Security & Development 13.1 (2013): 1-29.
David, Ojochenemi J., Lucky E. Asuelime, and Hakeem Onapajo. "The Phenomenon of Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria." Boko Haram. Springer International Publishing, 2015. 1-20.
Ekot, Basil. "Conflict, religion and ethnicity in the postcolonial Nigerian state." Australasian Review of African Studies, The 30.2 (2009): 47.
Maiangwa, Benjamin, et al. "" Baptism by fire": Boko Haram and the reign of terror in Nigeria." Africa Today 59.2 (2012): 40-57.
