Supported by other jihadist organizations including al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab, Shekau's tactics were marked by extreme brutality and explicit targeting of civilians.Īfter years of fighting, the insurgents became increasingly aggressive, and started to seize large areas in northeastern Nigeria. Though challenged by internal rivals, such as Abu Usmatul al-Ansari's Salafist conservative faction and the Ansaru faction, Shekau became the insurgency's de facto leader and mostly kept the different Boko Haram factions from fighting each other, instead focusing on overthrowing the Nigerian government. The movement consequently fractured into autonomous groups and started an insurgency, though rebel commander Abubakar Shekau managed to achieve a kind of primacy among the insurgents. īoko Haram's initial uprising failed, and its leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed by the Nigerian government. The conflict takes place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region. The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. Thousands killed, captured, or surrendered ģ50,000 deaths total, of which 35,000 direct 2,400,000 internally displaced advisers Militias and vigilantes: Unknown, several tens of thousands įluctuating thousands to tens of thousands on average Nigerian Army: 130,000 active frontline personnel 32,000 active reserve personnel Nigeria Police Force: 371,800 officers Multinational Joint Task Force: 7,500 active personnel (excluding Cameroon and Nigeria) Cameroonian Armed Forces: 20,000 active personnel 300 U.S. General Dzarma Zirkusu † Paul Biya Mahamat Déby Itno Idriss Déby †) Mohamed Bazoum Mahamadou Issoufouīoko Haram: Mohammed Yusuf Abubakar Shekau † ISWAP: Abu Musab al-Barnawi † Ba Idrisa ( MIA) Bo Lawan ("Lawan Abubakar") Huozaifah Ibn Sadiq Muhammadu Buhari Goodluck Jonathan Umaru Yar'Adua Ibrahim Gaidam) Kashim Shettima Ali Modu Sheriff Isa Yuguda Brig. ISWAP (originally Barnawi faction of Boko Haram from 2016) Ansaru Supported by: al-Qaeda UNICEF continues to work with partners across the region to identify and respond to urgent needs, connecting children and families with health care, nutrition, sources of safe water and protection services.Boko Haram (partially aligned with ISIL from 2015) Contents Displacement camps tend to be overcrowded and host communities have little to offer to newcomers. Severe acute malnutrition is life-threatening without treatmentĭelivering humanitarian aid to areas affected by conflict is extremely challenging. Malnutrition rates among children have soared. Safe water, adequate health care and other basics are difficult to come by. Villages have been attacked, and - if not burned to the ground - left stripped of all resources. A violent insurgency, a prolonged humanitarian crisisīoko Haram, a violent Islamist insurgency, has terrorized communities around West Africa's Lake Chad Basin for years - creating new hardships and compounding existing ones for millions of people in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, many of them still displaced and struggling to survive.Ĭhildren have been abducted, killed and used as suicide bombers.