The expansion of Boko Haram terrorist group continues to present security challenges in West Africa
Boko Haram, which loosely translates as “Western education is forbidden,” is a terrorist group based in north-eastern Nigeria and has spread to countries including Chad, Niger, and northern Cameroon. Boko Haram uses factors such as poverty, corruption, historic grievances, sectarian enmity as fertile grounds to grow and spread by all means in West Africa.
In March 2015, Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and changed the group’s name to Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The ISIL accepted the pledge the same month.
In August 2016, the ISIL Leadership recognized and appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the de facto leader of the ISWAP, which Shekau refused to accept. Due to infighting, the ISWAP split into two factions, al-Barnawi’s faction (ISWAP) and Shekau’s faction (Boko Haram).
It is estimated that the ISWAP has approximately 3,500-5,000 fighters. Shekau’s faction tends to focus on Borno, Nigeria and its neighbours, Cameroon and Chad. So far in 2020, the terror organization has struck nine times across Africa killing around 330 people.
Despite Boko Haram’s retreat following a regional military offensive in 2015 by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) – composed of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria – Boko Haram continues to exercise a significant security threat in West Africa.
Boko Haram has been fighting to carve out an Islamic Caliphate based in Nigeria. In Nigeria, a decade of jihadist violence in the north-east has killed some 30,000 people, displaced more than three million and plunged the region into a humanitarian crisis.
The ISWAP has carried out numerous attacks in Nigeria, since its formation. On July 29, 2020, Boko Haram fighters opened fire on the convoy of Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State. The attack followed ISWAP’s release of a video showing the execution-style murder of five aid workers. These indicate a strong presence of Boko Haram in the region.
In Cameroon, Boko Haram has carried out attacks in the Far North region. The Far North region, tucked between Nigeria’s Borno and Adamawa states and Lake Chad, currently hosts 321,886 internally displaced people (IDPs) and 115,000 Nigerian refugees. According to Human Rights Watch, the attacks are often indiscriminate or deliberately target civilians.
The attacks have included suicide bombings in crowded civilian areas such as markets, mosques, churches, schools, displacement camps, and bus stations; kidnappings, including of women and children; and widespread looting and destruction of civilian property.
On August 2, 2020, Boko Haram carried out an attack on a camp hosting 800 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Cameroon’s Far North region. According to Cameroon’s Defence Ministry, at least 19 people, including two suicide bombers, died and 16 others were injured in the terrorist group’s attack near the village of Nguetchewe. According to UNHCR Spokesperson Babar Baloch, more than 87 attacks have been recorded this year in Cameroon, which are attributed to Boko Haram.
These incidents are not only a sad reminder of the intensity and brutality of the violence in the wider Lake Chad Basin region in West Africa, but also to the security threat posed by Boko Haram and the splinter groups in the region. The violence has forced more than three million people to flee, 2,7 million are internally displaced in Northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, while 292,682 Nigerian refugees fled into neighbouring countries.
Source: New Delhi Times
