Boko Haram

Boko Haram is a jihadist militant organization that emerged in northeastern Nigeria and launched an insurgency across the Lake Chad region. It has used bombings, raids, kidnappings, and attacks on civilians and state forces.

Mohammed Yusuf: A Nigerian preacher who founded the movement that became Boko Haram in the early 2000s. His teachings and organization laid the foundations for Boko Haram before the 2009 uprising.
Abubakar Shekau: A Nigerian militant leader who headed Boko Haram after Mohammed Yusuf’s death and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2015. His leadership shaped the group’s most violent phase and its later split with Islamic State factions.
Borno State: A state in northeastern Nigeria bordering Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, with Maiduguri as its capital. Borno has been the insurgency’s central Nigerian battleground and the location of many attacks.
Internally displaced person: A person forced to flee home but remaining within the borders of their own country. Boko Haram violence has displaced millions within northeastern Nigeria and neighboring countries.
Ansaru: A jihadist group that split from Boko Haram in 2012 and condemned some of its attacks on Muslim civilians. Ansaru’s breakaway status and different stated priorities distinguish it from Boko Haram’s main factions.
Maiduguri: The capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria and a major city near Lake Chad. Boko Haram formed around Maiduguri, where Yusuf built a following and religious complex.
Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad: The formal Arabic name used by Boko Haram, meaning roughly “People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Preaching and Jihad.” This name identifies the organization behind the label commonly used in news and scholarship.
Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping: The 2014 abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram from Chibok, Nigeria. The kidnapping brought global attention to Boko Haram’s mass abductions and attacks on education.
Lake Chad Basin Commission: An intergovernmental organization coordinating the shared water and development interests of countries in the Lake Chad basin. The insurgency pushed basin states to coordinate security alongside longstanding regional cooperation.
Salafi jihadism: A militant ideology that advocates returning to an idealized early Islam and using violence to establish its political order. Boko Haram belongs to this broader ideological current, though its beliefs and practices are locally shaped.

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