Organized Crime–Terror Nexus: Interrogating the Linkage Between Banditry and Terrorism in Northern Nigeria

2022 ◽  
pp. 002190962110696
Author(s):  
Al Chukwuma Okoli ◽  
Chikodiri Nwangwu
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Boko Haram

This paper examines the phenomenon of crime–terror nexus from the standpoint of the linkage between banditry and Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria. Using a descriptive analysis predicated on a combination of primary and secondary studies, the paper reveals that both groups have functionally adapted each other’s structures and strategies. While Boko Haram and its splinter groups have occasionally engaged in acts of banditry, there has been mutual co-option by both groups as the exigencies of their operations demand. Nigeria’s drive at mitigating the banditry-terrorism conundrum must proceed with a pragmatic understanding of the gamut and dynamics of their situational nexuses.

The Boko Haram Reader

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cook
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Islamic Theology ◽  
Long Line ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
The World

Since it erupted onto the world stage in 2009, people have asked, what is Boko Haram, and what does it stand for? Is there a coherent vision or set of beliefs behind it? Despite the growing literature about the group, few if any attempts have been made to answer these questions, even though Boko Haram is but the latest in a long line of millenarian Muslim reform groups to emerge in Northern Nigeria over the last two centuries. The Boko Haram Reader offers an unprecedented collection of essential texts, documents, videos, audio, and nashids (martial hymns), translated into English from Hausa, Arabic and Kanuri, tracing the group's origins, history, and evolution. Its editors, two Nigerian scholars, reveal how Boko Haram's leaders manipulate Islamic theology for the legitimization, radicalization, indoctrination and dissemination of their ideas across West Africa. Mandatory reading for anyone wishing to grasp the underpinnings of Boko Haram's insurgency, particularly how the group strives to delegitimize its rivals and establish its beliefs as a dominant strand of Islamic thought in West Africa's religious marketplace.

West Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Danilo Mandić
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
The World

This chapter focuses on West Africa during 1989–2019. West Africa's transnational smuggling enterprises are hardly a novelty — or as menacing as they sound. Troc, or barter trade, is a way of life that preceded and survived colonialism. Commerce is known as al-frud, from the French fraude (fraud), reflecting the World War II-era tradition of regional smuggling. What is new in the globalized period is that mafias in five nations — and just as many budding ones — have played formative roles in regional politics. Three of the host states (Mali, Senegal, and Nigeria) were significantly torn by ethnocentric, separatist-controlled rackets in drugs and migrants (Azawad), marijuana (Casamance), and extortion (Boko Haram). Nigeria employed ethnocentric Niger Delta mafias to fight its northern separatists. In Niger's Agadez and Cameroon's Ambazonia, however, organized crime promoted cohesion.

scholarly journals The Prevalence and Nature of Terrorist Attacks in Nigeria during the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Peculiar M. Awa
Keyword(s):  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Boko Haram

During the administration of Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, there was a marked increase in the country's violence and frequency of terrorist attacks. The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of terrorist incidents during the Jonathan administration. Using the START dataset, the study analyzed data over 84 months to examine the effect of Jonathan's presidency on terrorism in Nigeria. The study found a wide variation in the number of terrorist attacks between 2009 and 2015. The full presidency phase experienced a markedly more significant number of terrorist attacks than the post-presidency, acting presidency, and pre-presidency phases. On average, the full presidency and post-presidency phases experienced significantly greater rates of terrorist attacks per month than the acting presidency and pre-presidency phases. The casualty rates were consistent with this variation except that post-presidency appeared the bloodiest of all four phases. The study also revealed that Boko Haram was responsible for most terrorist attacks and casualties during the administration. Implications for these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.

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