1.) Problem Statement: Boko Haram has become a rapidly increasing threat to Northern Africa and the surrounding areas. There radical Islamic ideology has made them a serious threat to many North African nations who share similar ideologies, as well as a serious threat to the South African nations who are predominantly Christian.
2.) Background: Boko Haram is an Islamic terrorist organization that originated in Nigeria in 2002. Since the conception of Boko Haram, various attacks have been upheld against Christian venues as well as many organizations that associate with Western values. Since 2009 Boko has claimed attacks on Nigeria’s police, military, rival clerics, politicians, schools, religious buildings, public institutions, and
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The current leader of Boko Haram is Abubakar Shekau. Shekau took over power in 2009 after the death of Boko Haram former leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Yusuf is credited with being the founder of Boko Haram back in 2002. He worked closely with Shekau from 2002 until 2009 when he was killed in a Boko uprising, where he was detained by the Nigerian police and killed. Shekau then took the reins of the Islamic radical group. Since 2009 Shekau has been reported dead multiple times, yet he remains alive. The most recent case of this has occurred when the Nigerian Air Force bombed the radicals and reported Shekau as “fatally wounded”. Shekau then released a video of himself months later proving that he was alive and well. Shekau has pledged allegiance to ISIL and loyalty does their work across Northern Africa in an attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate in Africa.
b.) Military Capabilities: It is very difficult to determine the strength of Boko Haram. They do not report any formal information on strength or capabilities. All data is merely a speculation. “Local and international experts put the number at anywhere between 5,000 and 50,000 active fighters. This latter figure is almost certainly far too big.” (War is Boring). These speculations do not provide any pertinent information regarding the Boko Haram regime. They are far too vague to provide any use. This has forced analyst to be more creative in how they go about determining the capabilities of the radicals. They do
Different sources have different causes of what they say was the motivation for Boko Haram’s attacks. Some sources say it was the killing of their leader in 2009 and some even say that the it was due to global warming within that country, but whatever it is, it is a big problem not only for the Islamic states but all of the other countries of the world. Their different attacks seem to show what the source of this motivation was. The group is very hard to understand in terms of their overall motivation because there is so little known information about them. Information in general is hard to come by from Nigeria. Police officers and city officials so corrupt that they give the citizens little to no information as to what is going on (Walker, 2012, p. 7). They are too motivated by their own selfish goals. The Boko Haram group itself has given no really helpful information as it has denied bombings and other terroristic activities.
One of the reasons that Boko Haram has come to Cameroon is because they want to establish an Islamic state in that area. Establishing an Islamic state in that area is a solution for problems that the founders of Boko Haram saw. “Bad governance, corruption, persistent economic hardship, and rising inequality have fostered the growth of radical extremist groups” (Schultz). The founders of Boko Haram saw these problems and their solution was to try to create an Islamic state. The Islamic state that they wanted to create stretched across eastern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, and south-western Chad (“Cameroon”). The founders of Boko Haram saw a problem and tried to fix it, but they did it in a very bad way, and this bad way caused them to be in Cameroon.
With the traumatic events that occurred on November 13th, 2015, many politicians and media hosts have responded by attacking the religion of Islam as well as the groups that perpetrated these events. Often referring to the beliefs held by groups—such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram—as a radical and medieval version of Islam, these individuals are not wrong in a sense, but rather they are failing to notice that no ancient religion is peaceful or nonviolent. It is true that the beliefs that are held by members of terrorist groups are archaic, but it isn’t because the culture and system of modern Islam is medieval in itself, but because the terrorists that are perpetrating these are attacks are modern fanatics of the olden days. If one were to look at another major religion’s history, such as Christianity, one would notice that there have been similar moments of religious fanaticism through acts such as the Crusades.
One of the newest and most dangerous terrorist groups is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS and formerly known as al Qaeda in Iraq. Tracing back to Osama Bin Laden, this Islamic militant group was formed in October of 2006 after several jihadist groups merged together to form what would be known as the Islamic State of Iraq (Al-Monitor, 2015). The group is an Islamic extremist group that follows the Islamism religion. Many Muslims believe that their religion should “guide social and political as well as personal life” but this jihadi group of individuals are extremists (Berman, 2003). There are just over 1 billion Muslims in the world and of them about 10 million are what is known as Salafi jihadists, who believe that through war they will expand the Muslim culture so that the entire world will follow their beliefs (Livesey, 2005). ISIS follows the Salafi jihadist religion very closely and promotes it with violence and instilling fear in ordinary citizens.
Boko Haram’s effects when it declared insurgency six years ago on education is evident in Nigeria’s current economic status. Africa’s largest economy has already taken a blow from the consistent destruction of multiple schools and communities. “Education is the foundation of a society; without it, development is
The Boko Haram conflict is currently taking place in Nigeria, with some minor ongoing activity in western Chad, southeast Niger and northern Cameroon. Though the group is concentrated in the northeastern states of Borno and Yobe in Nigeria, its influence has spread throughout the country. The current insurgency officially began on July 26th, 2009, and while Nigerian President Muhammadu Buharu declared the conflict ‘technically’ over in December 2015, the violence continues today.
Extremism is a rotten apple that has affected the condition of our societies. From developed countries to developing countries, individuals with bad intentions have succeeded in their attempt to marginalized religious minorities. In Europe, the Muslim minorities are victims of attacks from extreme-right groups who diabolized them for electoral purposes. Also, the rise of extremism is a reality in Africa, Asia or the Middle East. In Africa, as it occurs in the Nigeria, people motivated by vile religious leaders have come to confront people of different faith in an escalation of
Boko Haram is an awful group. Since more people live in the North, Boko Haram moves up there to attack. He plans to attack, kidnap, and kill more where he declares his territory. Boko Haram also declared parts of Bornu a caliphate. Not only does he declare that, but he puts his eyes on small villages. Why? Because it’s easier for the terrorists to attack.
Islamic State West Africa Province, Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad, Boko Haram; known by many names, the terror organization that has plagued Northern Nigeria since the mid-2000s remains a threat to stability in Western Africa. Boko Haram was classified by the Global Terrorism Index as the deadliest terror organization of 2015; inflicting 6644 deaths, 77% civilians, this terror group is in fact on the decline due to infighting, coalition military strikes and a seeming lack of strategy, save for assaults on civilians and some infrastructure. Such a lack of strategy through which to attain their end-goal of a fundamentalist Sharia state in Nigeria has led to the group’s decline. A new strategy is critical if it were to make a resurgence to prominence in northern Nigeria. Should a strategically enlightened leader take the reins of Boko Haram, his first priority would be to end the hostilities between competing factions by any means necessary. He would afterwards find it necessary to integrate and garner support for his cause amongst the general population, rendering the two entirely necessary to mutual survival. The next priority would be to divide and cripple Nigerian armed forces through attacks on soft targets to degrade morale and possibly open negotiations for some kind of resolution. Failing that, calling on support from other fundamentalist organizations and countries would no doubt add to the fighting capacity and legitimacy of Boko Haram, thus
According to the Wikipedia Boko Haram refers to People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad. Better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram, it is a Salafist jihadist terrorist organization based in the northeast of Nigeria. It is an Islamist movement which strongly opposes man-made laws. Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2001 or 2002, the organisation is a Muslim sect that seeks to abolish the secular system of government and establish a Sharia
In recent times, Nigeria has attracted significant global attention as a result of the on going Boko Haram terrorism actions. With Nigeria being one of the most populous country in West Africa there is bound to be religious and political tensions which in turn breeds political violence. The Boko Haram group is the first insurgent group in Nigeria to be classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States of America and it Allies (Akpan, F et al: 2014). From their radical emergence in 2009 up till date, the country has suffered vulnerability to terror, criminality and instability, starting in 2010 with a retaliation attack for the death of their leader Mohammed Yusuf. The sect further intensified their activities in 2011 with the bombing of the Police headquarters in Abuja the capital city and the UN headquarters also in Abuja. All these attacks left a lot dead and a whole lot more of people injured and displaced.
Boko Haram members cut across varied divide, age-group, occupation and societal class. They ranged from Muhammed Yusuf’s students who became his disciples, to government officials such as Buji Foi who was a commissioner for the Borno state government. There were sympathizers of the group who were not active members but aligned with Muhammed Yusuf’s ideologies and ideals. Members thus came from diverse backgrounds: disaffected youths, unemployed graduates, former almajirai (itinerant students), and wealthy persons from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Sudan. Omipidan, Michael and Bwala posit that membership in the group cut across the broad spectrum of the society, but a preponderant number came from among the poorest social groups. Thus, beyond former university lecturers, students,
Boko Haram is an affiliated branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) of Iraq and the Levant. It has been performing its atrocities in Nigeria since 2009, during regime of Dr Good Luck (Past President). The name of the group means "Western" or "non-Islamic" education is a sin. The group is active in the northern part of Nigeria, and their primary objective is to impose Islamic law as the only law in Nigeria.
One of the significant difficulties standing up to Africa today is the means by which to agreeable or opposite the tide of terrorism clearing over the landmass. There is a solid conviction among policymakers that terrorism in Africa is to a great extent the result of financial hardship, poverty, unemployment, absence of education, defilement, distance and monetary, social and political minimization and dispossession of the masses. The poverty, unemployment and ignorance that drive African adolescents to grasp terrorism in Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Mauritania among others are the result of an alternate issue.
Separatist groups in other parts of Nigeria. One of such separatist groups is Boko Haram, which has established itself as a religious separatist movement active in the northern parts of Nigeria and funded by powerful political forces. The refusal of many insurgent groups to enter the Amnesty program and the commitment of MEND (the main insurgent group in the Niger Delta) to continue armed hostilities with the Nigerian state is predicated in part on the program’s