The underlying reasons for the emerging dynamic of regional security cooperation against Boko Haram

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe persistent violence of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin and beyond between 2011 and 2014 is linked to a variety of reasons: the trouble that had the Nigeria’s national army to contain this group, the lack of cooperation between states directly touched by Boko Haram, the difficult coordination between regional organizations as the Lake Chad Basin is overlapping between the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and many other intergovernmental organizations. Faced with the difficult regional cooperation in the area during the above-named period, the atrocities of Boko Haram made at least 30.000 dead, more than 1.6 million refugees and displaced, 4.2 million people facing food insecurity and health problems. However, starting in 2015, there have been a shift in the regional management of the crisis in the Lake Chad Basin. States directly affected by the Boko Haram phenomenon moved forward by pooling their efforts. By using the Regional Security Complex Theory, this paper aim to show that the rise of a new regional leadership stimulated the collective military coalition which led later to the reactivation and gradual deployment of the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin. This collective action linked states of West Africa and those of Central Africa region and, sounds like African solutions to African problems.