Boko Haram insurgency: a decade of dynamic evolution and struggle for a caliphate

Abstract

Is Boko Haram consistently motivated by the need for a territorial caliphate? That is, the creation of the Community of Ummah rather than religion as their envisioned motivation. We seek to take this question seriously due to a series of studies that have started drawing conclusions on the territorial goal of most terrorist organisations. One of such body of literature focuses on the relationship between terrorist groups’ proclivity for territory and ungoverned space, or the axiom that politics includes legitimate dominion over a spatial extension. Drawing extensively from the territorial assumptions as well as critical discourse analyses of speeches, we argue that the Community of Ummah in West Africa partly informs Boko Haram’s objective. This assertion found its clearest expression in the administration of Kannama village, the declaring of Gwoza as the Caliphate Headquarters and the use of Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad areas for sanctuaries, planning and executions of attacks and threats. Understanding Boko Haram’s geographical motivation has its merit of adopting a more offensive and proactive counterterrorism that aims at destroying terrorist resources, eliminating safe havens and undertaking actions that improve the retention of liberated spaces.