The terrorist group Boko Haram* emerged in northeastern Nigeria in the early 2000s. In its first years, its members claimed they wanted to put an end to the West’s influence on Islam in the region, and the movement operated openly. But after a series of clashes with police in 2009, the organisation’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was arrested and killed by Nigerian security forces.
After his death, Abubakar Shekau assumed leadership, and the group shifted to overt terror. The 2014 attack on the school in Chibok, in which 276 girls were abducted, became a turning point. From that moment, Boko Haram fully transformed into a terrorist organisation. How did it manage to establish itself in neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon? And why, despite internal splits, does Boko Haram continue to operate to this day?
*designated as a terrorist organisation and banned in Russia
