Terrorism And the Pragmatics Of Transnational Intervention

 This paper looks at one of the most lethal terrorist groups in the world – the Boko Haram and the pragmatics of regional intervention or collaboration to deal with the threat. Considering the humanitarian concerns the crises had generated, the group’s alleged links to Al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM) and Islamic State (IS) and the rumbling issues in dealing with the problem, recourse to regional intervention is tenable.

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by Sagir Musa Jun 13, 2015

ANALYTIC GROUNDING: The Boko Haram terrorist (BHT) group was founded in 2002 by a Sunni Islamic preacher Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri, Borno state in Nigeria’s north – east. Yusuf exploited the seemingly conservative nature of Northern Nigeria as reflected in the region’s opposition to or backwardness in western education. Consequently, Yusuf built a mosque and Islamiyah School in Maiduguri (madrassa). At the madrassa that thousands of people, mostly uneducated and poor Muslims and converts from across Nigeria and the neighboring countries of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger were dogmatically radicalised into Boko Haram ideology. Similarly, the endemic poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in the north – east was also exploited by Yusuf, thereby succeeded in creating a cult like followership.