ICC Note:
For years, Boko Haram, a radical Islamic insurgency bent on establishing a separate Islamic state to be ruled by Sharia law, has killed more than 13,000 Nigerians, a majority of whom were professed Christians. Over the course of its 2014 campaign of terror, Boko Haram has equaled the carnage inflicted by ISIS in Iraq. The only question that remains is when will the international community take Boko Haram as seriously as it does its counterparts in the Middle East?
12/07/2014 Nigeria (SpyGhana) – 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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