In 2009, the Muslim terrorist group, Bako Haram became more radical and started killing Muslims and non Muslims opposed to them alike. They ordered for the assassination of all political and religious leaders who were critical of their operations.

Another confrontation with police led to a riot and brutal state crackdown, leaving one of the Bako Haram leaders, Sheikh Yusuf and many of his followers dead.

But the Bako Haram group soon emerged again, this time under the leadership of Yusuf’s right-hand man Abubakar Shekau. The event also saw the members of Bako Haram make contact with other Islamist groups, who helped train and arm the sect. Their violent retribution was soon blanketed by media and politicians as under Boko Haram

Boko Haram: North/South Frictions

The Islamism of Boko Haram is just a part of the story. Nigeria suffers from incredible factional fighting, particularly between the North and South.

The North was an Islamic state since the early 19th century – this changed when the British forced the two parts into a single colony during the early 1900s.

A major flashpoint is between the northern Islamic Fulani and southern Christian Berom tribes. The Berom have been accused of attacking the Fulani with government assistance, including cannibalism.

There were also the Jos riots, centring on a Nigerian city in the middle of the country – this escalated to a conflict between 2001 and 2004 that left over 50,000 people dead. Such events have often been cited by Boko Haram leadership as justification for its own brutal campaigns.

The terrorist group was originally formed in 2002 as a breakaway sect that eventually moved to a rural village, where it planned to run its own Sharia law-based society.

A conflict over fishing rights there soon involved the police, who were disarmed by the sect. Nigeria’s military cracked down brutally, killing most of the group members.

The survivors later regrouped and started a new Islamic order, which grew in ranks and recruitment due to broad unemployment and the charismatic leadership of Mohammed Yusuf.

Boko Haram is the name of a large Islamist group fighting in northern Nigeria. Its aim is to establish an independent Islamic state under Sharia law. But this is only partially accurate. The group’s proper name is Jamā’atuAhlisSunnahLādda’awatihwal-Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad). ‘Boko Haram’ was a dismissive name given by neighbours of the sect in its early years and means “Western Education Is Forbidden” in the Hausa language; alluding to the group’s hard-line belief that Western ideas, particularly from British colonialism, have turned Muslims away from the virtues of Islam.

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