Rise of Boko Haram

Among the most-pressing concerns in Jonathan’s first full term as president was the ongoing threat presented by Boko Haram, an Islamic sectarian movement founded in 2002 in northeastern Nigeria; the group claimed to want to end the corruption and injustice in the country and impose Sharīʿah, or Islamic law. Boko Haram did not gain widespread notoriety until 2009 when, after an altercation with military and local police forces, it began attacking police and government targets, killing and injuring many; in response, security forces launched a crackdown on the group, killing many members. Shortly thereafter, the group’s leader, Muhammed Yusuf, was captured and killed while in police custody, as were several of his followers. After a hiatus, the group resurfaced under the leadership of Yusuf’s deputy, Abubakar Shekau, and unleashed a campaign of violence in 2010 that continued in the following years.

Boko Haram’s attacks grew in intensity and frequency, occurring primarily in northeastern and central Nigeria and typically targeting government buildings, military barracks, the police, and Christian churches and schools. Extrajudicial violence and killings by the police and military while in the pursuit of the group’s members were not uncommon and further heightened tensions in the country; the extrajudicial activity was also widely condemned by human rights groups. In 2012 some estimates held that more than 2,800 people had been killed by Boko Haram or by the security forces pursuing the group. The idea of granting amnesty to the group members if they disarmed—similar to what had been done with the MEND rebels in 2009—had been periodically proposed but dismissed for various reasons. In April 2013, however, with Boko Haram’s violence showing little sign of abatement and the previous strategies of dealing with the group by force clearly proven ineffective, Jonathan appointed a committee to investigate the implementation of an amnesty program, but it bore little fruit. In June Jonathan officially declared Boko Haram a terrorist group and banned it under Nigerian law. The militants and anyone caught helping them could then be prosecuted under the country’s Terrorism Prevention Act, which was expected to facilitate legal prosecution of the accused.

Boko Haram’s attacks continued throughout the rest of 2013 and into 2014, with the government unable to do much to stop the group. In April 2014 Boko Haram’s mass kidnapping of more than 275 girls from a boarding school in Chibok in Borno state brought the group and its unabated campaign of terror into the international spotlight. The kidnapping was widely condemned across the globe and generated an increase in offers of international assistance to Nigeria, which, unlike in the past, the country was now more willing to accept. Neighbouring countries as well as Western nations worked with Nigeria to curtail the group’s actions and to try to locate the missing schoolgirls. The next month the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on individuals in Boko Haram—freezing assets and issuing travel bans and an arms embargo—but, given the nature of the group’s operations, it was unclear if the sanctions would actually have an impact on Boko Haram’s activities. They did not: the group’s attacks continued, and in August Boko Haram declared the areas under its control to be an Islamic state.