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Ten years ago a violent uprising began.
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Since then, it’s shaken the North East of
Nigeria, and neighbouring countries.
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It’s a conflict that’s killed more than
30 000 people, and displaced millions more.
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I’m talking, of course, of Boko Haram.
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But who are Boko Haram?
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And why has Nigeria’s battle with them lasted
over a decade?
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So how did it all begin?
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Boko Haram means ‘Western education is forbidden’.
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It was formed by this man: Mohammed Yusuf.
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He hated the West and was very critical of
the government, which he saw as corrupt and
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un-Islamic.
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He set up a religious complex, including a
mosque and an Islamic school in Maiduguri,
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the capital of Borno state.
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He was a charismatic speaker whose followers
were a mixed bag, not only some of society's
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poorest but also upper class and university
students, who invited him to speak on campus.
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They accepted the ideology, they accepted
the belief, the belief of establishing a theocratic
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Islamic state.
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And all the people who joined him, even though
Mohammed Yusuf was attending to their needs,
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he was providing social services to them,
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the core reason why most of them joined was ideology.
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In July 2009, Boko Haram staged a failed uprising
against the Nigerian government.
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Eight hundred people were killed, and many
of their members arrested.
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Authorities thought they’d successfully
crushed the group when Mohammed Yusuf was
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killed in police custody.
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But that July uprising marked the beginning
of a ten year long battle
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that continues to this day.
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Just a year after the uprising, one of Yusuf’s
lieutenants, Abubakar Shekau, announced he
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was now the new leader of Boko Haram.
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The re-emergence of Boko Haram under Shekau’s
leadership marked one of the first times when
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authorities claimed to have defeated Boko
Haram, only for the group to resurface.
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It’s a pattern that would be repeated time
and again over the next decade.
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In August 2011, Boko Haram made international
headlines when it sent a car bomb into the
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United Nations compound in Abuja.
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Twenty-three people were killed, and more
than seventy-five injured.
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The next few years would be some of the group’s
deadliest.
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Between 2013 and 2015, Boko Haram killed more
than eleven thousand people.
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It was impossible to count the number of dead
bodies, there were so many.
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Women, men and children were killed.
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During that period, the group seized more
and more territory - and by 2015 was in control
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of much of Nigeria’s Borno state.
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It also spread its attacks beyond Nigeria’s
borders, to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
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As people fled the terror, the UN estimates
that over 2.2 million people were displaced.
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But Boko Haram’s most notorious attacks
came when they targeted schoolgirls.
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One night in April 2014, students of the Girls’
Secondary School of the northern town of Chibok
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were sleeping in their dormitories.
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But armed members of Boko Haram stormed the
boarding school.
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They bundled 276 terrified schoolgirls together
and took them away.
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The abduction led to global outrage.
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Prominent global figures asked for more to
be done to free the girls.
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But although a number of them have been released
in the last five years, more than a hundred
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of the students are still missing.
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The Chibok incident showed Boko Haram that kidnappings could bring them publicity.
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Four years after Chibok, they abducted 110
schoolgirls from the town of Dapchi.
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Most were released a month later.
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But one of them, a Christian student called
Leah Sharibu remains in captivity.
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Her peers say she refused to give up her faith.
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Since 2013, more than a thousand children
have been abducted by the terror group.
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The Nigerian military have been criticised
for their failure to free those kidnapped
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by Boko Haram.
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Low morale and corruption have left the army
floundering.
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But Boko Haram’s shifting strategy, including
the use of female suicide bombers, has made
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them hard to pin down.
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In recent years Boko Haram has fractured and
split, forging new alliances, and developing
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new tactics.
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In 2015 Boko Haram lost its self-proclaimed
capital, Gwoza, to Nigerian troops.
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Over time, the government has taken back territory,
forcing the group towards the hilly area east
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of Gwoza, as well as Lake Chad and the Sambisa
Forest.
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Whilst losing territory, Abubakar Shekau looked
for new international allies.
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He pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.
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But IS had other ideas.
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A year later, it announced that the new leader
of what was now known as the Islamic State
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West Africa Province, was Abu Musab al-Barnarwi.
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Remember this guy? Mohammed Yusuf, the founder
of Boko Haram?
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Well, Al Barnawi is believed to be his son.
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Although he keeps a low profile - there are
no verified images of him.
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So Boko Haram was now split.
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Abubakar Shekau remained in control of another
faction, now known as
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Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad.
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Or JAS to you and me.
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The Islamic State West Africa Province, also
known as ISWAP, has developed new tactics
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- focusing on winning the hearts and minds
of the communities in the territory it controls.
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ISWAP's tactic now is actually, is a combination
of, not just warfare, but it's also a combination
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of a state building project, so ISWAP is actually
engaging in that state-building project, having
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their own judicial system where they establish
court judgements.
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Also monitoring economic activities, especially
the fish farming, the cattle rearing and the
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farming activity in the region.
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Now all of these activities were not the activities
we saw from Boko Haram at the early and the
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nascent stage.
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As IS’s caliphate is lost in the Middle
East, ISWAP is attempting to establish one
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in West Africa.
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If it is successful, this insurgency could
be around in another decade.
