ICC Note:
Boko Haram, a radical Islamic insurgency bent on establishing a separate Islamic state, has waged a multi-year campaign of terror against the Nigerian, especially Christians across the country’s predominantly Islamic north. Responsible for the deaths of more than 1,700 Christians this year alone, Boko Haram’s violence is now being paralleled to that of ISIS. Both have declared Islamic caliphates and leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has even pledged his support to ISIS Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
12/06/2014 Nigeria (NBC) – Intensifying violence perpetrated by Islamist radicals and government troops in Nigeria has for the first time claimed more than 10,000 lives in just 12 months, according to new figures.
The rate of violence in Africa’s most populous country is comparable to the civilian death toll in Iraq, where a U.S.-led coalition is fighting ISIS.
Nigeria’s bloodiest year is the result of a relentless insurgency by the Islamist sect Boko Haram. Bombings, shootings and kidnappings have become weekly events, and the group is estimated to control an area of northeast Nigeria the size of Rhode Island.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to defeat Boko Haram. But human rights organizations say the carnage has only been exacerbated by the sometimes brutal response of government troops, many of whom have been accused of human rights abuses against civilians.
“The violence has become so bad that people don’t have lives anymore,” said Sen. Ahmed Zanna, who represents Nigeria’s violence-plagued Borno state. “They cannot go to their farms, they cannot go to their businesses. It dominates people’s lives every single day. They have no help from the army, the people who are supposed to protect them. They are scared, and that fear is real.”
(NBC) – Intensifying violence perpetrated by Islamist radicals and government troops in Nigeria has for the first time claimed more than 10,000 lives in just 12 months, according to new figures.
The rate of violence in Africa’s most populous country is comparable to the civilian death toll in Iraq, where a U.S.-led coalition is fighting ISIS.
Nigeria’s bloodiest year is the result of a relentless insurgency by the Islamist sect Boko Haram. Bombings, shootings and kidnappings have become weekly events, and the group is estimated to control an area of northeast Nigeria the size of Rhode Island.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to defeat Boko Haram. But human rights organizations say the carnage has only been exacerbated by the sometimes brutal response of government troops, many of whom have been accused of human rights abuses against civilians.
“The violence has become so bad that people don’t have lives anymore,” said Sen. Ahmed Zanna, who represents Nigeria’s violence-plagued Borno state. “They cannot go to their farms, they cannot go to their businesses. It dominates people’s lives every single day. They have no help from the army, the people who are supposed to protect them. They are scared, and that fear is real.”
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