Boko Haram Boko Haram

Boko Haram Boko Haram
Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad (official name)
ﺟﻤﺎﻋﺔ ﺃﻫﻞ ﺍﻟﺴﻨﺔ ﻟﻠﺪﻋﻮﺓ ﻭﺍﻟﺠﻬ.          
Participant in the Boko Haram insurgency
Active 2002–present Ideology Wahhabism
Salafism Islamic fundamentalism

Leaders
Mohammed Yusuf (founder) (KIA)
Abubakar Shekau (current leader)

Area of operations
Nigeria , Cameroon , Niger , Chad
Strength
7,000–10,000 Part of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Opponents
Nigeria Cameroon Niger Chad Benin (announced)  Nigerian territory under the control of Boko Haram as of 21 February 2015, shown in dark grey Boko Haram ("Western education is forbidden"), officially
called Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad ( Arabic:
ﺟﻤﺎﻋﺔ ﺃﻫﻞ ﺍﻟﺴﻨﺔ ﻟﻠﺪﻋﻮﺓ ﻭﺍﻟﺠﻬﺎﺩ , Jamā‘at Ahl as-Sunnah li
Da‘wah wa’l-Jihād , "Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad"), is an Islamist terrorist movement based in north-east Nigeria , also active in Chad, Niger and
northern Cameroon.[4] The group is led by Abubakar Shekau . Estimates of membership vary between a few hundred and 10,000. The group had been linked to al-Qaeda and in 2014 expressed support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant , pledging formal allegiance to it in 2015.  Boko Haram killed more than 5,000 civilians between July
2009 and June 2014, including at least 2,000 in the first half of 2014, in attacks occurring mainly in north-east, north-central and central
Nigeria. Corruption in the security services and
human rights abuses committed by them have hampered efforts to counter the unrest. Since 2009 Boko Haram have abducted more than 500 men, [17][18] women and children, including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014. 650,000 people had fled the conflict zone by August 2014, an increase of 200,000 since May; by the end of the year 1.5 million had fled.  After its founding in 2002, Boko Haram's increasing radicalisation led to a violent uprising in July 2009 in which its leader was executed. Its unexpected resurgence, following a mass prison break in September 2010, was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets , and progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombings of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja . The government's establishment of a state of emergency at the
beginning of 2012, extended in the following year to cover the entire north-east of the country, resulted in a marked increase
in both security force abuses and militant attacks. The Nigerian military proved ineffective in countering the insurgency, hampered by an entrenched culture of official
corruption. Since mid-2014, the militants have been in control of swathes of territory in and around their home state of Borno , estimated at 50,000 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi)
in January 2015, but have not captured the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, where the group was originally based.

Name
The official name is ﺟﻤﺎﻋﺔ ﺃﻫﻞ ﺍﻟﺴﻨﺔ ﻟﻠﺪﻋﻮﺓ ﻭﺍﻟﺠﻬﺎﺩ Jamā‘atu
Ahli is-Sunnah lid-Da‘wati wal-Jihād , meaning "People
Committed to the Prophet's Teachings for Propagation and Jihad". [23] The group was also originally known informally as
'Yusifiyya', after its first leader, Mohammed Yusuf . The name "Boko Haram" is usually translated as "Western education is forbidden". Haram is from the Arabic ﺣَﺮَﺍﻡ ḥarām, "forbidden"; and the Hausa word boko [the first vowel is long, the second pronounced in a low tone], originally meaning "fake", has come to mean [25] and is widely translated as
"Western education" and thought to be a possible corruption of the English word "book". [26][27] Boko Haram has also been
translated as "Western influence is a sin" [28] and "Westernization is sacrilege". [14]
Some Nigerians dismiss Western education as ilimin boko ("education fake") and draw a distinction between makaranta alkorani (religious school), based on the Qur'an where
students learn to write and recite Arabic, and makaranta boko — government schools imparting secular education in the colonial English (official) language.