What is Boko Haram and can it be stopped?

ISLAMIST terrorist group Boko Haram has killed up to 162 people in a series of bombings on government buildings and police stations in the Nigerian city of Kano. Friday’s attacks are the deadliest yet to be claimed by Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. But what is this group and how dangerous are they?

WHAT IS BOKO HARAM?
Boko Haram - which roughly translates as ‘Western education is a sin’ - is a Nigerian Islamist terrorist group, founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 in the northern city of Maiduguri. The group’s official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which is Arabic for ‘People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad’. The more catchy Boko Haram is a Hausa phrase which may have been coined by the Nigerian government or locals in Maiduguri.

HAS BOKO HARAM ALWAYS BEEN VIOLENT?
For seven years after the group was founded in 2002, Boko Haram was largely non-violent. That all changed in July 2009 when suspicions that Boko Haram was arming led to the arrests of some of its members.

Boko Haram retaliated by attacking police stations in Maiduguri. A military operation against Boko Haram’s compound led to the deaths of around 100 people and the arrest of Yusuf. He was shot dead the following day when he allegedly tried to escape custody.

WHAT DOES BOKO HARAM WANT?
Officially, it wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria and the introduction of Sharia law. But it isn’t that simple. A report by the Council on Foreign Relations notes: “Injustice and poverty, as well as the belief that the West is a corrupting influence… are root causes of both the desire to implement sharia and Boko Haram's pursuit of an Islamic state.”

Nigerian analyst Chris Ngwodo says in the report: "The group itself is an effect and not a cause; it is a symptom of decades of failed government and elite delinquency finally ripening into social chaos."

WHO LEADS BOKO HARAM?
Probably Abubakar Shekau, who claimed leadership of the group in a video posted in July 2010. He reappeared in another video earlier this month (above) in which he said, according to France 24: “We are at war with Christians.” However, the group may have splintered into factions following the death of Yusuf.

HOW DANGEROUS IS BOKO HARAM?
Boko Haram began its campaign of violence in earnest in 2010. Besides Friday’s bombing in Kano, the group’s worst atrocities include the bombing of a bar in Maiduguri in June 2011 which killed 25 people; a suicide bombing against the UN headquarters in Abuja in August 2011, which killed 23 people; and coordinated shootings and bombings in Damaturu in November which killed more than 100.

Boko Haram is suspected by some to have links to the north African-based Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Somalia-based Al-Shabaab. AFP reported in September 2011 after the attack on the UN that General Carter Ham, the head of the US military's Africa Command, believed all three groups had expressed a will to "more closely collaborate and synchronise their efforts". Boko Haram’s videos also betray al-Qaeda influences, with Shekau wearing a red and white headscarf and littering his speeches with Arabic phrases.

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has admitted that there are Boko Haram sympathisers in the security forces and his own government.

CAN BOKO HARAM BE STOPPED?
Talk of Boko Haram’s links with other terrorist groups might be unhelpful. The Council for Foreign Relations’ John Campbell believes that Boko Haram “has a legitimate grievance against [Nigeria’s] security forces and that international intervention could distract from policy actions needed to address the underlying issues”.

Analysts speaking to the BBC say the threat from Boko Haram will only be tamed “if the Nigerian government manages to reduce the region's chronic poverty and builds an education system which gains the support of local Muslims”. ·