Boko Haram-related attacks have
occurred in fourteen out of the country 's thirty-six states, including
all twelve of the states that have already adopted Islamic law, and in
the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.Nigeria Security Tracker
(NST)
Domestic airlines have cancelled night-stops in Maiduguri following the escalating security situation caused by Boko Haram.
Nigeria
's radical Islamist movement Boko Haram led by Abubakar Shekau,little is known about him not even
his age, where he was born. The militant group
has destabilized northern Nigeria and attracted the attention of other
jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates gaining strength in
neighboring northern Mali. It has an
important Islamic revival dimension, but also has political and criminal
elements. Nevertheless, some even want to impose it throughout the country in
areas where Christians are the majority. The group is bitterly hostile
to the Christian-led secular government in the capital of Abuja, which
it accuses of exploiting the poor. Its methods are violent and deadly,
ranging from targeted killings to mass deaths resulting from car bombs.
But Boko Haram is only one aspect of the pervasive
violence engulfing Nigeria. Government soldiers have been indiscriminate
in their fight against Boko Haram, often killing innocent civilians.
Police across the country are notorious for extrajudicial murder.
Meanwhile, a new generation of militants in
the Niger Delta threatens war against the Nigerian state over the
division of the oil wealth their region produces.
In an effort to better understand this violence, the Council on Foreign Relations has established the
Nigeria Security Tracker
(NST), a research project to catalogue Nigerian political violence
based on a methodical survey of Nigerian and international media. The
NST is particularly focused on violence related to Boko Haram and other
militant activity, communal or ethno-religious conflict, extrajudicial
killings by state security, and kidnappings or other violent incidents
that have a clear political dimension.
October 2012 was by far
Nigeria's deadliest month in the sixteen-month period since June 2011.
During that month, three days of ongoing attacks by Boko Haram in the
northern state of Yobe left at least thirty dead, including a former
government official. In Borno, the state bordering Chad and Cameroon,
the military went on a rampage after a bombing injured two soldiers,
killing at least thirty civilians. Meanwhile, in Benue, in the middle of
the country, communal conflict resulted in the deaths of at least
thirty people and the destruction of homes and farmland. A suicide
bombing at a church in Kaduna in the north killed eight people and set
off reprisal attacks that killed at least two more. In total, at least
six hundred people were killed in October 2012.
Boko Haram has also expanded its area of operations.
In 2011, Boko Haram violence was largely confined to Nigeria's
northeast; by the end of 2012, the NST had documented incidents across
all of northern Nigeria. This year, Boko Haram-related attacks have
occurred in fourteen out of the country 's thirty-six states, including
all twelve of the states that have already adopted Islamic law, and in
the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. Boko Haram has also claimed
responsibility for attacks in central Plateau state, which has been torn
apart by ongoing communal violence.
Up until now, Boko Haram has been focused on Nigerian
rather than Western targets of the international jihad. But that might
be changing. In a recently released
video,
Abubakar Shekau made hostile references to the United States and
Britain. The United States is increasingly worried that Boko Haram is
collaborating with the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist regime in northern Mali.
The Nigerian press has attributed to Boko Haram the murder of four
Chinese nationals, three Indians, and a Ghanaian in Borno, as well as
the kidnapping of two Europeans in Kebbi state who were killed in a
botched rescue. While victims continue to be almost exclusively
Nigerian, Boko Haram has expanded its focus within the country. In 2011,
a large percentage of the victims were Muslims, who were closely
associated with the government in Abuja. However, since Christmas 2011,
Christians have been a growing percentage of victims. Countrywide,
according to the NST, at least thirty-seven attacks have occurred at
churches and twenty-one at mosques.
Boko Haram 's methods have also evolved. The NST has
documented at least twenty-eight alleged suicide bombings, ten of which
targeted churches and mosques. Use of suicide bombers had been unknown
in West Africa, where suicide is culturally anathema, until two
high-profile attacks in Abuja--the June 2011 police headquarters bombing
and the August 2011 United Nations headquarters bombing. Since then,
suicide bombings have taken place with regularity, leaving well over one
hundred people dead.
At the same time, human rights NGOs have accused the
Nigerian security services of responding to Boko Haram with
extrajudicial killings, which, in turn, have allegedly fueled support
for Islamic radicalism. Indeed, a close reading of the Nigerian press
shows that Nigerian security forces across the country have regularly
responded to robberies, kidnapping, or terrorism with a heavy hand,
often shooting indiscriminately. Since President Goodluck Jonathan's
inauguration in 2011, at least 1,100 people have died in incidents
involving state security forces, including government troops killed in
shootouts with militants. There is nothing new about police violence,
which long predates the Jonathan administration. For example, a recent
report by the
Network on Police Reform (PDF)
found that 7,198 people were extrajudicially killed by security forces
in the last four years. The number of victims of violence perpetrated by
the government security apparatus approaches that of Boko Haram,
according to an October 2012 Human Rights Watch report,
Spiraling Violence (PDF).
Across the country, impunity reigns for virtually all
perpetrators of political or ethnic violence. The judiciary is weak and
underfunded. Justice is regularly delayed. The police are corrupt.
There have been few prosecutions, convictions, and punishments of
members of Boko Haram, the security forces, or corrupt officials.
Nigeria remains near the bottom of Transparency International's
corruption perception index.
Despite the fact that Boko Haram has garnered local
support by propagating a radical Islamist ideology, alienation, poverty,
and bad governance are the fundamental causes of northern Nigeria's
instability. Indeed, most of the Boko Haram-related violence is
occurring in some of Nigeria's poorest states. So far, the federal
government has failed to suppress Boko Haram, even as it has killed some
of the group's leaders and many of its foot soldiers. The federal
government has also failed to address the roots of the popular
dissatisfaction that feeds support for radical Islam.
AN EXCERPT OF John Campbell, Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies, and Asch Harwood ARTICLES ON COUNCIL FOR FOREIGN RELATIONS.
BY Amazing-grace Wilson (Diamantewilson)
t
