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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