On Saturday, three suicide bombers killed 18 people and injured twenty-two in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, in Borno state. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, authorities have blamed the Boko Haram insurgency, the jihadist group centralized in the country’s northeast that has killed 20,000 people in the country since 2009.
The incident marks one of the deadliest executed by the group in a recent string of attacks.
At the end of last December, no fewer than five people were killed, with 18 others seriously injured, when a female suicide bomber attacked a crowded area in the area of Konduga. On January 20, 2018, local authorities in Madagali Government Area reported the deaths of five people in an attack by Boko Haram militants in Kaya village, which marked the tenth attack in the region that month alone. The very next day, reports came out that militants attacked an army outpost in Toummour, southeast of Niger near the Nigerian border, killing seven soldiers and wounding seventeen. Finally, on February 4, militants stormed the village of Alau-Kofa, also located in Borno state, killing two and burning most of the village structures.
The escalation of attacks by Boko Haram should be seen in the context of a broader phenomenon in Africa, namely the expansion of the Islamic State, the organization to which Boko Haram is officially loyal.
This uptick in attacks came as a surprise to some observers. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari declared earlier this month that Boko Haram has been “defeated” by government forces. The increase also comes on the heels of a United Nations report of a sharp fall in the number of civilians kidnapped, killed, or wounded by the group in neighboring Niger, taken by many as a strong indication that the group’s strength has been waning.
Unfortunately, the recent trend of attacks has shown that Boko Haram is still a force to be reckoned with. Indeed the Nigerian military has been ramping up its fight against the group, despite claims by officials that the jihadists had been vanquished. Efforts to fortify towns in vulnerable areas have been underway for some time. Within that context, the government has established the Civilian Joint Task Force, designated residents in specific areas that will act as agricultural rangers too. In a recent speech, Nigeria’s army chief Tukur Buratai ordered his men to capture Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau, who is both the spiritual head and chief commander of the terror, “dead or alive.”
“Boko Haram terrorists’ factional leader Abubakar Shekau on the run dressed in woman attire, Feb 13, 2018.” (Credit: Facebook/Abiodun Adebayo Lanrryb)
While the operations of Boko Haram have been relatively localized (focusing primarily in Nigeria and to a lesser extent the neighboring countries of Cameroon and Niger), the escalation of attacks by Boko Haram should, at least to some degree, be seen in the context of a broader phenomenon in Africa, namely the expansion of the Islamic State, the organization to which Boko Haram is officially loyal.
The United States felt the entrenchment of ISIS in Sub-Saharan Africa is firsthand in the killing of three American special forces personnel while acting in a support role for government troops in Niger back in October. The group of attackers that engaged the joint Niger-US patrol was not a loose-knit handful of militants. According to reports, the force was fifty strong, and came with heavy military hardware. Furthermore, the fact the Americans and Nigerians were ambushed means that the attackers had foreknowledge of the patrol’s movements and were able to plan out effective vectors of attack ahead of time.
In many ways, the incident encapsulated the overall growth of Salafist jihadi groups in the region over the recent period. This has been accomplished by militants primarily through efficient funding networks, developed in tandem with drug and other illicit smuggling operations that connect Iran and Afghanistan to other African countries.
Recent events in Nigeria serve as a potent reminder to the lingering jihadist groups in Africa, especially Islamic State and their affiliates. While the West has achieved tremendous success in dislodging ISIS from its strongholds in the Middle East, the perseverance of the group is increasingly showing itself in the African continent.
