CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 General Background

Boko Haram originally known as Jama‟atu Alhlissunnah Lidda‟awati wal Jihad (Followers of

the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad for Propagation of Islam and Jihad) (Adamu, 2012) or

the Yusuffiya Movement came into limelight in July 2009 during the administration of the

late President Umaru Musa Yar‟Adua following a deadly clash which erupted between the

movement and the security forces over the violation of the law on the use of crash helmet by

the movement in Maiduguri, Borno State. The deadly clash left several of the Boko Haram

members dead. Prior to that incident, Boko Haram had existed peacefully in Borno State

preaching against Western values that contradicted their belief. The pervasive corruption,

inequality, injustice, unemployment, immorality believed to have been caused by the

infiltration of Western values into the country influenced Boko Haram and its adherents.

Their campaign against aspects of Western schooling earned them the name “Boko Haram”-

a Hausa word which means Western knowledge is false (Adamu, 2012) contrary to the

media‟s interpretation of the word as Western education is sinful or forbidden. The anti

Western posture of the Boko Haram led to more confrontations between the government and

the movement. Boko Haram was briefly curtailed by the Nigerian security forces in July

2009. The virtual destruction of the Yusufiyya Movement by the Nigerian security forces in

July 2009 and the death of their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, drove the movement underground

for almost six months (Hajeej, 2011). The killing of Mohammed Yusuf, Boko Haram‟s

leader, perceived as an injustice by the movement was believed to have radicalised and

emboldened them to carry out more deadly attacks in the country. In 2010, they began a

systematic insurgency against security forces- the police and the army as well as those who

collaborated with the security forces leading either to their capture, or shooting (Hajeej,

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2011). The Boko Haram insurgents metamorphosed from the use of simple weapons like

sticks, clubs, machetes, cutlasses, to sophisticated weapons like guns, rockets, and

improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for their operations. From January 2010 to June 2011,

they carried out more than 20 documented attacks which included shootings, bombings,

including suicide bombing (Hajeej, 2011).

The insurgents eventually extended their activities to the neighbouring states of Nigeria,

Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. The capability of Boko Haram to attack the neighbouring states

of Nigeria in the Lake Chad region became serious concern to the West and Central African

Sub-regions and Africa in general. It was in realisation of the dangers Boko Haram posed to

the African continent that the African Union acting under the clause of collective security as

ratified by the United Nations Charter of 1945 authorised the Multinational Joint Task Force

(MNJTF) to fight the Boko Haram insurgents collectively through the Lake Chad Basin

Commission States comprising Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon plus Benin Republic.

In the contemporary world, insurgency is not restricted to a country. Apart from the spill over

effects it could have on other countries, it could also influence the behaviour of a state

towards another state which may cause diplomatic row between them. For example, Kenyan

government blamed Eritrea for supplying arms to al-Shabaab-a Somali insurgent group that

had claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in the Kenyan territory over the

country‟s deployment of troops to fight the insurgents in Southern Somalia. That intensified

diplomatic row between the two countries. In 2010, Kenya‟s Foreign Affairs Minister, Moses

Wetangular summoned Eritrean Ambassador to Kenya over his country‟s supply of arms to

al-Shabaab, a claim the Eritrean government denied (Lough, Sheik, 2011). Similarly, cross-

borders attacks by insurgent groups between Indian and Pakistan have also intensified

diplomatic row between the two countries. India blamed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)-a group it

claimed has closed ties to Pakistani intelligence of carrying out several attacks in Uri in

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