Boko Haram Nigerias Islamist Insurgency by Boko Haram.Comolli, Virginia

Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Islamist Insurgency
Boko Haram., Comolli, Virginia

Boko Haram
Boko Haram, Kendhammer, Brandon, McCain, Carmen

Boko Haram: Security Considerations And The Rise Of An Insurgency
Ona Ekhomu

Boko Haram analyzes the activities and atrocities of Nigeria’s Jihadi terrorist group, Boko Haram, in the context of global religious fundamentalism and extremism. The book traces the early beginnings of the religious sect, the conversion of its leader to radical Islam in 2002, and the group’s campaign of violence beginning in 2009 and continuing to the present. The group’s attacks against a variety of targets are examined in detail as are their general tactics and strategies. The Nigerian government response is also examined in order to provide critical lessons to counterterrorism planners, policy and government officials, and scholars. The initial military response was hampered by capability and legislative constraints including a lack of arms and ammunition, a lack of modern counterterrorism equipment, training gaps, leadership issues, intelligence gaps, politicization of the conflict, and limited support to the Nigerian military by the international community. Boko Haram looks at the work that has been done thus far, and what work needs to continue, to make gains to combat, marginalize, and ultimately defeat Boko Haram and resolve the conflict facing Nigeria. Key features: Outlines the history of Boko Haram and its emergence in Nigeria Provides the latest developments on fundamentalism in Nigeria, the growth of Boko Haram and the government response Focuses on the attacks, attack methodology and targeting of Boko Haram, addressing best-practice countermeasures Examines Boko Haram’s ties to other Islamist groups including ISIL/ISIS and others Details the importance for international cooperation in responding to Boko Haram’s activities and threats.

Boko Haram: Inside Nigeria’s Unholy War
Mike J. Smith

An insurgency in Nigeria by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has left thousands dead, shaken Africa’s biggest nation and worried the world. Yet they remain a mysterious-almost unknowable-organization. Through extensive on-the-ground reporting, Smith takes readers inside the violence and provides the first in-depth account of the conflict. He traces Boko Haram from its beginnings in Nigeria’s remote northeast to its transformation into a hydra-headed monster, deploying suicide bombers and abducting schoolgirls. Much of the book is told from the perspective of Nigerians who have found themselves caught between the violence of insurgents, brutal security forces and an inept government. It includes the stories of a police officer left paralyzed, women whose husbands have been murdered and a sword-wielding vigilante using charms to fend off insurgent bullets. Smith questions whether there can be any end to the violence and the ways in which this might be achieved.

Searching for Boko Haram: A History of Violence in Central Africa
Scott MacEachern

For the past decade, Boko Haram has relentlessly terrorized northeastern Nigeria. Few if any explanations for the rise of this violent insurgent group look beyond its roots in worldwide jihadism and recent political conflicts in central Africa.

Searching for Boko Haram is the first book to examine the insurgency within the context of centuries, millennia even, of cultural change in the region. The book surveys the deep history of the lands south of Lake Chad, richly documented in archaeology and texts, to show how ancient natural and cultural events can aid in our understanding of Boko Haram’s present agenda. The land’s historical narrative stretches back five centuries, with cultural origins that plunge even deeper into the past. One important feature of this past is the phenomenon of frontiers and borderlands. In striking ways, Boko Haram resembles the frontier slave raiders and warlords who figure in precolonial and colonial writings on the southern Lake Chad Basin. Presently, these accounts are paralleled by the activity of smugglers, bandits (coupeurs de route–“road cutters”), and tax evaders. The borderlands of these countries are today places where the state often refuses to exercise its full authority because of the profits and opportunities illicit relationships afford state officials and bureaucrats. For the local community, Boko Haram’s actions are readily understandable in terms of slave raids and borderlands. They are not mysterious and unprecedented eruptions of violence and savagery, but–as the book argues–recognizable phenomena within the contexts of local politics and history.

Written from the perspective of an author who has worked in this part of Africa for more than thirty years, Searching for Boko Haram provides vital historical context to the recent rise of this terroristic force, and counters misperceptions of their activities and of the region as a whole.