Domestic Terrorism: Boko Haram

Boko Haram

Domestic Terrorism as defined by www.rand.org is “violence against the civilian population or infrastructure of a nation, often but not always by citizens of that nation and often with the intent to intimidate, coerce, or influence national policy”. Boko Haram rose to power due to the corrupt political leaders and economic troubles striking those living in Nigeria. This gives people who are concerned about what is going on to ask questions. What is Boko Haram? What is their goal? What are they doing to achieve this goal? What is the United States doing as a result? These are just a few of the possibly endless questions that could be asked about Boko Haram. As Boko Haram was created by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002, it established very

Before the rule of Shekau, the group had targeted federal and state buildings, including prisons and police stations. After the death of Mohammed Yusuf, attacks on civilian targets such as schools, churches and even small towns increased. The cooperation with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has led the group into more frequent, complex attacks. The group now moved into actions of violence to achieve their goals. Officially being named a terrorist group by the United States in 2013, the group has now completed over 600 reported attacks(www.justice.gov). One of the largest attacks reaching up to 2,000 known casualties occurred in towns of Baga and Doron Baga located in Borno, Nigeria. This attack took place between the days of January 3-7 in the year 2015, pulling the total destruction of 3,720 buildings in both towns (web.stanford.edu). This continued violence has affected Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Bauchi, Plateau, Taraba, Borno and Yobe, which are all Northern states inside of Nigeria. As violences continues to grow, the number of those affected seems to grow higher and higher, approaching 10,000 killed, and 1.5 million displaced due to this violence (www.cfr.org). The United States government determines their relationship with Nigeria to be one of the most important on the continent. As a result, when the corruption of Boko