Boko Haram

Boko Haram is a militant extremist group based primarily in northeastern Nigeria and parts of the Lake Chad region. Founded in the early 2000s, the group became internationally known for violent insurgencies, kidnappings, and attacks against civilians, governments, and security forces. Boko Haram’s activities have caused major humanitarian crises and regional instability across West Africa.

Quick facts about Boko Haram

Founded in 2002 in Maiduguri by radical cleric Mohammed Yusuf, the official name is Jamāʿat Ahl al-Sunnah li-l-Daʿawah wa al-Jihād, but locals dubbed it "Boko Haram" (Hausa for "Westernization/Western education is sacrilege") due to Yusuf's total rejection of modern state institutions and science.
Initially operating as an isolated extremist sect, the group militarized following a violent July 2009 crackdown by Nigerian security forces that culminated in Yusuf's extrajudicial execution in police custody, driving the surviving leadership underground under his ruthless deputy, Abubakar Shekau.
The group gained global notoriety in April 2014 by kidnapping 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State, launching the international "#BringBackOurGirls" campaign and pioneer-modeled the systematic deployment of coerced women and young girls as human suicide bombers across the Lake Chad Basin.
At its peak in early 2015, Boko Haram controlled roughly 20,000 square miles of territory in northeastern Nigeria. It pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015, but ideological infighting over Shekau's extreme brutality toward Muslim civilians split the group into factions, leading to the rise of ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province).
The group's expansion forced the creation of a multi-national coalition force involving Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, triggering a humanitarian crisis that killed tens of thousands and displaced over 2 million people across the Lake Chad region.