Concept in Definition ABC

Boko Haram is the name of an Islamic terrorist group that emerged in 2002 in northern Nigeria and has since then it has spread to other West African countries (Niger, Chad and Cameroon mainly).

Targets of the terrorist group and financing

The objective of Boko Haram is threefold:

1) create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria,

2) impose and extend sharia or law Islamic as code of conduct Y

3) combat education inspired by Christianity (the words Boko Haram in the Hausa language mean precisely "Western education is sin").

Regarding the financing of Boko Haram, experts and analysts maintain that the money comes from a tribute specific to Islam, the azaque (the original idea of ​​the azaque is to help the most needy, as prescribed in the Quran).

Terrorist acts and their consequences

Since the emergence of Boko Haram, terrorist actions have focused mainly on the territory Nigerian. The members of this group call themselves "warriors of God" and their terrorist acts have been very diverse: killings of Christian students, burning of schools, clashes with the Nigerian army and the kidnapping and rape of hundreds of girls Although it is difficult to calculate the victims, it is estimated that there could be more than 11,000. This situation has created a

weather from conflict war, thousands of displaced people and a social tension and politics in Nigeria and in the Sahel (the Sahel is the name of the geographical area that crosses all of Africa from east to west and is located south of the Sahara desert).

Causes of the rise of Boko Haram

The causes that explain the existence of this group are diverse. First of all, it must be remembered that Nigeria is a very complex country with a population more than 170 million inhabitants, with hundreds of ethnic groups and languages ​​and a clear division between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain in 1960 but at the end of the same decade there was a bloody civil war, the well-known Biafra War in which temporarily a part of the territory declared the independence.

Ethnic conflicts generated greater poverty in the north of the Muslim-majority country, where large sectors of the The population suffered from growing frustration accompanied by high levels of illiteracy among the dominant ethnic group, the kanuri.

Finally, it must be remembered that since its independence Nigeria has had several military dictatorships and the government has normally been presided over by a Christian representative, a circumstance that has been rejected by broad sectors of the Muslim population and in a very special way by the Boko militants Haram.

Photo: iStock - bwb-studio

Themes in Boko Haram