Nigeria is tormented by crises parallel only to some beleaguered countries of the Middle East where mindless acts of terrorism have crippled socio-political and infrastructure development and created uncertain future.
10 years ago, precisely in July 2009, a scarcely armed group of Islamists called the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad popularly known as Boko Haram (Western Education is forbidden) provoked an uprising against the Nigerian state and sowed a seed of unrelenting, but costly insurgency.
Perhaps, it was the unheeded warning and lackadaisical approach by the government that intensified the Boko Haram terrorism. The fundamentalist Islamist sect, which started in remote parts of north east Nigeria around 2002 was principally organised and led by founder and spiritual head, Mohammed Yusuf. The sect seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria but their toxic preachments against Nigeria’s secular status and their proposition of violence against the Nigerian state soon exposed them to scrutiny, arrests and harassments by the Nigerian security forces and a conflict with security forces became foreseeable.
On 26 July 2009, following alleged police attempts to emasculate their activities, the Boko Haram devotees, drawn mainly from the rural and urban poor and largely illiterate population of the North east, and acting on the instigation of their leader, dared the Nigerian security forces to a fight. They attacked police facilities in Bauchi State and killed scores of policemen on the pretext that some of their members were allegedly killed during a funeral procession and others detained by the Nigerian police. They freed some of their members incarcerated by the police and also helped themselves with a large cache of arms and ammunition.
Clashes between the militants and the police also erupted in Kano, Yobe and Borno states soon after. Former President of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, then ordered a crackdown on the insurgents and in reprisal, the police in collaboration with soldiers went berserk, killing about 1,000 sect members. The sect leader Mohammed Yusuf was arrested by soldiers in Maiduguri on July 30, 2009 and handed over to the police for prosecution but the police inexplicably executed him, claiming he made an attempt to escape.
The violent clashes of July 26 2009 sowed the seed of Boko Haram insurgency, which engulfed major cities in northern Nigeria and spread into neigbouring Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republic and led to one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises and the Boko Haram monster remains potent, tearing at the heart of Nigeria with unabated high civilian casualties despite some military successes recorded against the sect. According to the United Nations, 27, 000 civilians have been killed in ten years of the insurgency and about 2 million people have been displaced with property worth billion wasted and economic activities paralysed in the region.
The group came to international attention on 14 April 2014, when they plotted and successfully carried out the abduction of over 200 school girls from Chibok, a sleepy village in Borno State, coupled with thousands of other women and children, which they abducted, maimed, raped or forcefully conscripted into foot soldiers and human bombs. The Boko Haram uses minors and veiled women to carry out suicide bomb attacks, they attack people with car bombs and open fire on civilians at public places.
In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Levant. But with the collapse of the IS in Iraq and Syria, the Boko Haram has continued with the alliance it has built with the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) to remain relevant. That alliance with the ISWAP has become a major threat now such that few days ago scores of soldiers killed by the Boko Haram/ISWAP attack came to the fore. Over 1,000 thousand soldiers were allegedly killed by the group buried secretly in unmarked graves according to Wall Street Journal.
The report written by Joe Parkinson said the secret cemetery at the Maimalari barracks grows.
“At the northern edge of this city’s sprawling military base, a vast field of churned soil conceals the hidden toll of a deadly offensive by the allies of Islamic State.
“After dark, the bodies of soldiers are covertly transported from a mortuary that at times gets so crowded; the corpses are delivered by truck, according to Nigerian soldiers, diplomats and a senior government official. The bodies are laid by flashlight into trenches dug by infantrymen or local villagers paid a few dollars per shift,” the report said.
The report also quoted one soldier as saying “Several of my comrades were buried in unmarked graves at night, they are dying and being deleted from history.”
The Wall Street Journal also said that “the rapid rise of the Nigerian Islamic State spinoff, known as ISWAP, begins a new chapter for the jihadist movement after its defeat in Syria and Iraq, Nigerian and Western officials said. The group has an estimated 5,000 fighters who have established themselves in the borderlands around Lake Chad, where they are enmeshing themselves into communities, controlling trade routes, taxing the fishing industry and imposing an extremist brand of Islamic justice.”
The United Nations has also warned that the crisis of Boko Haram is far from over contrary to the claims of the Nigerian officials that the insurgency has been “technically defeated” and could no longer pose a threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence.
United Nations Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, stated this at the launch of ‘Holding On,’ a virtual reality experience in remembrance of 10 years of crisis in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
The UN had called “on everyone to please do their best to ensure security and safety aide workers because the operating environment is not easy at all.”
B’Haram’s catalogue of bombings and attacks
2011 Abuja police headquarters’ bombing
The June 16, 2011 Abuja police headquarters bombing was believed to be the first suicide bombing in Nigeria’s history. The attack occurred when a suicide bomber later identified as Mohammed Manga drove a car bomb onto the premises of the Louis Edet House in Abuja, the headquarters of the Nigerian police. He was said to have driven all the way from Yola in Adamawa State. The bomber had allegedly intended to kill the then Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim while he followed the IGP’s convoy but was stopped at the gate. About seven (7) people were confirmed dead.
2011 Abuja United Nations bombing
On Friday, August 26, at about 11.00am, a suicide bomber drove a car and exploded it at the United Nations Building in the highbrow diplomatic zone in Abuja killing over 26 people and wounding over 60. The Boko Haram sect later that day claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to a Reuters “The car bomb vehicle broke through two security barriers. Then its driver detonated the bomb after crashing it into the UN reception area. The bomb caused devastation to the building’s lower floors. The building is said to be the headquarters for about 400 UN employees but it is not clear how many were inside the building at the time of the attack.
“A wing of the building collapsed and the ground floor of the building was badly damaged.”
December 25, 2011 bomb attacks, shootings in Madalla, Jos, Gadaka and Damaturu, Madalla
In coordinated attacks during Christmas Day church services in some northern states, the Boko Haram sect bombed the Saint Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla in Niger State, killing over 40 people and injuring about 60 people.
Jos
On the same Christmas Day, an explosion rocked the Mountain of Fire and Miracle in Jos, Plateau State capital in north central just as gunmen later fired on police who were guarding the area resulting in the death of one police officer. Another two bombs were found in a nearby building and were disarmed.
Gadaka and Damaturu
Two explosions were reported in the city of Damaturu, Yobe State capital and another at a church in the northeastern town of Gadaka. At least, one of the attacks in Damaturu was carried out by a suicide car bomber, who rammed into the building housing the headquarters of the State Security Service. At least, three people were killed in that blast; a senior military commander allegedly targeted, survived.
Nyanya Bus Terminal attack
On April 14, 2014, a bomb exploded at the popular bus station in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja, the Nigerian capital, killing over 100 people, injuring over 200 others. The bomb went off when some of the high capacity buses were filled to the brim. Boko Haram claimed responsibility. This attack was followed by the infamous abduction of the school girls from a government school in Chibok, Borno state that same day.
2014 Kano bombing
On November 28, 2014 the Central Mosque (Grand Mosque) in Kano, the biggest city in the mainly Muslim northern Nigeria was attacked by the Boko Haram sect. The attacks were masterminded by two suicide bombers, who blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire on those who were trying to escape. About 120 people were killed and another 260 injured.
Another Jos blasts kill scores in July 2015
Again, Jos came under attack that left at least 44 people dead on July 7, 2015. A restaurant and a mosque were targeted on the Sunday night attack masterminded by the Boko Haram. The attacks came shortly after the Ramadan fast was broken, with both sites full of people.
Of the 44 dead, 23 were killed at the restaurant and 21 at the mosque, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said.
Attacks on the Army and other hard targets
Boko Haram attacks on hard targets are legion. According to one Nigerian columnist, Shaka Momodu, one of the deadliest massacres of Nigerian soldiers by Boko Haram occurred in November 2018 at the 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele, Borno State. In coordinated attacks, scores of soldiers including the commander of the battalion, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Sakaba, were killed. The exact casualty figure is still a closely-guarded secret.
“In the last four years under Buhari, Boko Haram has attacked and sacked 22 military posts, killing hundreds of Nigerian soldiers. The sacked military posts were in Gajiram, Mainok, Rann, Geidam, Sasawa, Magumeri, Malam Fatori, Gashigha, Kanama, Gamboru-Ngala, Mafa, Damasak,Gudumbali, Garunda, Kunduga, Kareto, Jilli, Arge, Zari, Arege, Metele and Buni Gari. It is an irony that long after its purported defeat, Boko Haram is the one on the offensive, and the military, now its primary target, is on the back foot.
“What we have are full savaged and humiliating sacking of military formations and killings of several hundred soldiers including senior officers. The United Nations recently revealed that Boko Haram was in firm control of three local government areas in the northeast, despite repeated denials by this government,” he said.
Abductions
Chibok
Nigeria and the international community were stunned when the Boko haram sect stormed the Government Secondary School Chibok in Borno State and kidnapped about 276 from their dormitory on April 2014.
In the first frantic minutes of their ordeal, 57 girls managed to jump from the trucks in which they were transported, and escaped. The remaining 219 were taken away by the fighters. The town has also come under repeated attacks by gunmen with buildings burned and some residents killed. But after years of intense negotiation, Boko Haram released several girls but more than 100 are still missing after five years.
Dapchi Abduction
On February 19, 2018 the Boko Haram again kidnapped a total of 110 girls from Government Science and Technical College in Dapchi. Some of the girls did not survive.
On March 25, 2018 the Federal Government announced that the Boko Haram had returned 106 of the kidnapped girls from. One of the girls Leah Sharibu is still in captivity for refusing to convert to Islam.
Expert’s perspective
Ona Ekhomu, a security expert, looking at the bloody campaign by the insurgents and the claim by the Federal Government that the sect had been “technically defeated”, said: “We still have two active groups of the insurgents- Boko Haram led by Abubakar Shekau and ISWAP. A few days ago they killed 65 mourners; the other day, they also killed 10 persons and that is too much. Boko Haram has remained an existential threat.”
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
