Boko Haram: On the Road to Algiers?

Abstract

This paper establishes a chilling parallel between Algerian Islamic insurgency and Boko Haram terrorist attacks in Nigeria and parts of West and Central Africa and maps out Nigeria’s reaction to the Boko Haram insurgency, including mass atrocities perpetrated by Nigerian security troops. The paper lays out violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law perpetrated by both sides of the conflict, belatedly recognised as a non-international armed conflict in 2013 by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Focusing on Boko Haram’s most horrendous atrocities from 2010 to 2015, media coverage of these attacks is synthesised without discountenancing the horror and unimaginable pains experienced by the victims and the survivors of more numerous but lower casualty rates of Boko Haram attacks. Foreign response to the emergence of Boko Haram is also examined against the background of the requirements of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria evolved from a peaceful religious reaction to corrupt governance, by western educated elites, into violent murderous attacks against symbols of the Nigerian state and unarmed civilians. Most sections of northern Nigeria seem caught up in a time warp of arrested socio-economic development and never-ceasing endemic poverty, while tiny elites continue to live off state revenues. Accountable political leadership, with a clear focus and plan on tackling the socio-economic imbalances within the region and across the country, is the panacea to Boko Haram.