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Boko Haram began as an Islamist group fighting against corrupt officials in northeastern Nigeria, but its decade-long insurgency has now devastated the region.
The campaign of violence claimed the lives of at least 27,000 people, displaced about two million people, and created a group affiliated with the Islamic State group. But what is Boko Haram?
Islamic state hardline
Boko Haram aims to create a radical Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.
The nickname of the group vaguely translates into the Hausa language "Western education is forbidden".
Its founder and spiritual leader, Muhammad Yusuf, blamed Nigeria's ills on Western values left by the former British colonial master.
He also accused the country's secular leaders of corruption and neglect of development in Muslim areas.
Yusuf drew the attention of the authorities in 2002 when he began forming a group among the underprivileged youth of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria.
He was killed in police custody in July 2009 following an uprising in Maiduguri that provoked a military badault. Some 800 people died in action and the Boko Haram mosque and its headquarters were left in ruins.
Many of his followers fled the country.
Violent turn
Boko Haram was generally peaceful before Yusuf's death.
But his successor, his right-hand man Abubakar Shekau, embarked on a violent campaign of deadly attacks against schools, churches, mosques, state entities and security forces.
Some Boko Haram members reportedly trained with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in northern Mali in 2012 and 2013.
Among the most notorious acts of the group is the abduction in April 2014 of 276 schoolgirls from the remote northern city of Chibok, in the state of Borno.
Fifty-seven fled immediately after, and more than 100 of the 219 people who spent years in captivity were released, found or escaped.
The mbad abduction drew the world's attention to the insurgency at a time when Boko Haram was seizing a territory located in the north-east of the country, which was became a virtually forbidden zone, with the violence spreading to Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
In August 2014, Shekau proclaimed a "caliphate" in the city of Gwoza in Borno and, in March 2015, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The violence destroyed property and farmland in the country's mostly rural north-east, triggering a humanitarian crisis and severe food shortages.
An offensive launched since 2015 by regional armies – Nigerian and other-supported troops from Cameroon, Chad and Niger – has led jihadists from most of the regions they had seized.
But bloody raids and suicide bombings continue.
Mbadive legal proceedings against people suspected of belonging to Boko Haram began in October 2017. Most of them were released, largely for lack of evidence, and more than 100 people were sentenced for belonging to the group and for taking part in attacks.
New faction
A faction led by Muhammad Yusuf's son, Abu Mus' ab al-Barnawi, separated in 2016 from the movement, while she opposed Shekau being targeted. in a blind way.
The separatist group ISWAP (Islamic State of West Africa) has received support from the SI. It targets the armed forces and since July 2018 has been carrying out numerous attacks on military bases.
The Shekau faction is responsible for suicide bombings targeting civilians.
Since last year, Barnawi was reportedly removed from ISWAP by more radical commanders.
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