The Place of Boko-Haram Insurgency Under International Humanitarian Law

Abstract

NIAC covers situations of violence taking place in the territory of one contracting party. The boko haram insurgency has taken its toll on Nigeria as a nation. The effect was much; there are high number of victims mostly civilians. Some were killed, others displaced while women and children were raped and force to marry against their will. There was also wanton destruction of property and pillage. There is no doubt that with all these atrocities committed by the boko haram members and the extra judicial killing by the military, the boko haram insurgency qualified as NIAC. It is worthy to state that recognition of NIAC status does not confer legitimacy to the cause and excess of either the insurgents or the government forces. The only thing that can justify resort to force by any armed group as rightly pointed out, is the legitimacy of their goals, the decency of their means and their ability to respect IHL. Of which I can unequivocally state are lacking in the case of boko haram. Finally, one can rightly opine that the violations of IHL are not due to the inadequacy of its rules, but rather to lack of willingness to respect them, or and also due to ignorance of the rules. Hence there is need for the government, NGOs and humanitarian organisations such as Red Cross to intensify efforts of disseminating rules of IHL in peace time.