A political and religious dispute has been one of the root cause of the wide-spread violence, globally. Every part of the globe is highly susceptible to violence and unrest brought upon by opposing views which ultimately gave rise to terrorist groups. Nigeria, for example, is one of the countries facing terrorist’s attacks brought upon by Boko Haram- a Northern-based group that continuously poses a major threat on the national security of the country by spreading terror and brutality (Peterside, 2014). Boko Haram, as a national threat has been on the continuous rise in Nigeria guided by its religious ideology in its every operation, has been causing an alarming threat on the national security situation of the country.
Boko Haram is a group that is believed to be founded by Mohammed Yusuf in the year 2002. It is an Islamic movement located in Maiduguri, Borno State that greatly opposes “man-made laws”. Moreover, the group aims to abolish the secular system of the Nigerian government to pave the way to its establishment of a new system called “Shari’a” (Olugbode, 2011). The group generally oppose anything that is of Western origin due to its belief that such culture corrupts Muslims. Furthermore, the group also show disapproval in Muslim establishment and the government of Nigeria- in addition to them greatly opposing and prohibiting contact with the Western World (Bartolotta, 2011). It is for these reasons that the group does not encourage contact with the local Muslim community wherein those who criticize their actions were assassinated by the group (Farouk, 2012).
Over the years, Boko Haram has already spread terror and violence around the country in pursuit of their beliefs and ideology. The country, under the attacks of Boko Haram, has experienced multiple bombings of various infrastructures including churches and mosques, both private and public properties, as well as schools and universities. The group also abducts innocent individuals which they eventually brutally kill wherein the mortality rate caused by these killings have been on a constant rise. Aside from being murderers, the group also commit arson wherein they set to fire anything that they set their feet upon (Peterside, 2014). Most of the group’s activities were set in 2009 up to the year 2012 which has caused numerous deaths and casualties. With thousands of death of innocent people and widespread terror around Nigeria, the tragedy that has befallen the country could be comparable to the same tragedy that the country has experienced during the Civil War.
Recent documentation of Boko Haram’s attacks shows that the group has caused the death of over 900 people in the year 2017 alone, which remarkably higher as compared to death rates in 2016. The group has launched this attacks to prove that they have not yet been defeated by the government. The focus of these attacks was in Borno State as well as other places such as Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. During these attacks, the group has reportedly conducted 59 suicide attacks and 90 armed assaults. The resilience of the terrorist group could be attributed to lack of provision of proper equipment to the country’s military group. In the hope of strengthening the force of the government over that of Boko Haram, the United States has already made a deal with Nigeria wherein the US agreed to sell weapons to the country (Wilson, 2018). Recent reports on the activities of the terrorist group have shown that 149 women and children have been rescued by the military from the hands of Boko Haram (Al Jazeera News, 2018). Since it’s uprising up to present days, Boko Haram still manages to maintain its resilience and inflicting of violence and terror around the country.
Over the past few years, activities of Boko Haram have already caused large numbers of death and casualties as well as millions of Nigerian people relocating to avoid attacks. The country has still a long way to go in fighting this armed group and up to now, the threats of Boko Haram on the national security is still prevalent and continuously gains power as they continuously recruit more activists to join their cause.
Works Cited.
Al Jazeera News. 2018. “Nigeria: 149 women and children rescued from Boko Haram”. Accessed 24 May 2018 from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/nigeria-149- women-children-rescued-boko-haram-180408151911329.html.
Bartolotta, C. 2011. “Terrorism in Nigeria: The Rise of Boko Haram”. World Policy. Accessed 24 May 2018 from https://worldpolicy.org/2011/09/19/terrorism-in-nigeria-the-rise-of- boko-haram/.
Farouk, C. 2012. “Who are Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists?”. BBC News. Accessed 24 May 2018 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13809501.
Olugbode, M. 2011. “Nigeria: We Are Responsible for Borno Killings, Says Boko Haram”. AllAfrica.com. Accessed 24 May 2018 from http://allafrica.com/stories/201102030036.html.
Peterside, B.Z. 2014. “A Threat to National Security: The Case of Boko Haram Nigeria”. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. Vol. 3. No. 4. Accessed 24 May 2018 from http://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/ajis/article/view/3101/3057.
Wilson, M. 2018. “Nigeria’s Boko Haram attacks in numbers- as lethal as ever.”. BBC News. Accessed 24 May 2018 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42735414.