Bombings and Boko Haram

If anyone has been following news in Nigeria recently, it has most likely been focused on the Islamic militant group Boko Haram and their recent attacks on the northeastern city of Maiduguri. The news is no different in Nigeria, either. Every day, front-page headlines are dedicated to updates on the continuing violence in the north of the country. Whenever there's a lull in local conversation, it is inevitably filled with some new comment about Boko Haram.

The group's official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad," but locals in the north dubbed the group Boko Haram, a Hausa phrase which means "Western Education is Forbidden" due to the group's opposition to western education.

I could give the group's history and a little bit of background, but honestly, there's too much intrigue to cover properly in one blog post. Suffice it to say, things have gotten bad. Last month, the group targeted the police headquarters in Abuja with a car bomb that killed two, shattered windows around the city, and destroyed over 70 nearby vehicles. Since then, the Nigerian government has gone on the offensive, and the entire situation is close to turning into a full-blown insurgency. Thousands of people have fled Maiduguri, including the 35,000 students at the university there, after Boko Haram threatened it with an attack. The timing could not be worse, as most of these students were about to sit for end-of-year exams.

Here in Jos, the conversation stems around the flood of what can only be called refugees or internally displaced people. Everyone I speak to has seen these people fleeing the violence in overloaded cars and trucks. Basically anything with wheels is trucking people out of the city. There are rumors that drivers are charging upwards of 5 - 6000 Naira ($30 - $40) for the journey, a crazy sum for that distance, but one which people are paying due to the military crackdown and increasing reports of extrajudicial killings and severe human rights abuses.

But we can joke about it can't we? Honestly, Nigerians have the greatest capacity for joking about anything, but underlying the laughter is often an ounce of worry. I recently went out with some friends to get some fish and have a beer at one of the open-air bars that are ubiquitous in Africa. However, this time around it took some serious deliberation to choose one that was properly secluded. It was determined after much discussion to avoid the popular ones near West of Mines (a central, typically busy Jos Haunt). When we sat down, one of the guys joked, "Okay, no Boko Haram here." Laughing, we didn't want to believe that he was afraid of bombings. Realistically though, I think it weighs on everyone's mind. Bombs killed 80 people in Jos on Christmas Eve 2010, and reports from the north detailing the violence have continued to set people on edge. Only a few weeks ago, Boko Haram militants on motorcycles lobbed bombs into a popular nightspot in Maiduguri, killing 25 and injuring dozens more. Indeed, for a few weeks it was almost impossible to open the newspaper in the morning without coming across news of another bombing, leading many to think, "If it can happen there..."

The government has responded in its typically heavy-handed way, deploying the military to Maiduguri and watching the fallout. Traditional leaders in the city have criticized the military task force for its human rights abuses, which the state governor only recently admitted were guilty of "excesses."

But as I mentioned, these issues are too much for one post. In the next few days, I'll try to look at the government response to Boko Haram and how a conflict so local has exploded into widespread violence amounting to near-insurrection. The hard-line government stance has done little for the country in fighting the wave of terror engulfing Maiduguri and may have only worsened the situation. Stay tuned for the next post.