'Boko Haram Is Standing Strong from Nigeria to Niger and Cameroon -- We Are in an Islamic State,' Declared Abubakar Shekau
By
Stanly Johny
20 Dec 2020
We are in
an Islamic State, declared Abubakar Shekau in a 52-minute video, shot somewhere
in northeastern Nigeria, in August 2014. The leader of Boko Haram, the Sunni
jihadist group that had captured swathes of territories in the Borno and Yobe
States, also said, ‘We have nothing to do with Nigeria.” He later declared
allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-declared ‘Caliph’ of the Islamic
State terror organisation, who was killed by American forces in 2019.
Abubakar Shekau
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Shekau’s
claim came a few months after over 200 girls were abducted from a school in the
town of Chibok in Borno by Boko Haram. The Chibok abductions— most of the girls
are still missing—triggered a global campaign against the jihadists. Muhammadan
Buhari, a former military dictator, contested the 2015 presidential election,
promising to defeat Boko Haram and restore security in the northeast. Mr.
Buhari won and in his first term, he set up a regional coalition to fight the
terrorists. The campaign was effective. Within a year, the Nigerian troops
liberated most of the towns and villages Boko Haram had controlled and pushed
the jihadists back to the Sambisa forest and the Mandara Mountains.
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Also Read: Boko Haram: The Antipathy between Islamism and
Western Education Runs Deep
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But the
offensive did not defeat Boko Haram, who regrouped in the forest and started a
relentless terror campaign in recent years. When Boko Haram claimed the
abductions of hundreds of school boys in Katsina State in the northwest on
December 11, many were surprised as the region was well outside the group’s
area of operations. The government claimed that local “bandits” were behind the
abductions. But Boko Haram had released a video showing the boys in distress,
before most of them were released on Friday after talks between the authorities
and the kidnappers. The jihadists said they carried out the operation as the
school was providing “unIslamic teachings”. One of the boys released told the
media that they were captured by “the men of Shekau”.
The attack
on schools and children is nothing new for the group. Boko Haram’s founder
Mohammed Yusuf, a popular cleric based in Maiduguri in Borno, was a vocal
opponent of Nigeria’s school system, which he called the “western education”
system. In 2002, he set up a religious complex, including an Islamic school and
a mosque, in Maiduguri, which attracted hundreds of young students from across
the country. But Boko Haram, whose official Arabic name was ‘Jama'atu Ahlis
Sunna Lidda'awati walJihad (People for the Propagation of the
Prophet's Preachings and Jihad), was more than a group of preachers. The locals
called them Boko Haram (which in the Hausa language means ‘Western education is
forbidden’) because of their hardline opposition to the school system.
Recruiting
Centre
Yusuf
wanted to “purify” the practice of Islam and create an Islamic State. The
religious complex he founded became a recruiting centre. In 2009, he started an
insurgency from Maiduguri. The Nigerian troops responded with heavy force. They
captured the group’s headquarters, killed hundreds of its supporters and
militants, including Yusuf. They claimed that Boko Haram was finished. They
were wrong.
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The group
regrouped under Shekau. In 2015, it changed its name to the Islamic State's
West Africa Province. Even after the Islamic State core was defeated in Iraq
and Syria and its leader, Baghdadi, was killed, Boko Haram continued to remain
a potent terrorist machinery. After retreating to the forest in 2016 in the
wake of the government offensive, the jihadists started attacking security
forces and civilians in 2018. The last two years have been deadlier for
Nigeria’s security forces than any other period in the decade-long conflict,
according to the U.S. Council on Foreign relations. Between June and November,
more than 200 people have been murdered or kidnapped in and around Maiduguri.
The
kidnappings in Katsina, Mr. Buhari’s home state, were particularly embarrassing
for the President who had come to power on promises of ending jihadist
insurgency. Five years into his rule, Boko Haram is still standing strong,
expanding its reach from Nigeria to Niger and Cameroon. And if they were
actually behind the Katsina kidnappings, it suggests that they are now
expanding their operations across Nigeria.
Original
Headline: The ‘Islamic State’ in Africa
Source: The Hindu
URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/boko-haram-standing-strong-nigeria/d/123826
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