BY PATRICIA TAFT AND KENDALL LAWRENCE In the early morning hours of February 9, 2016, in a sprawling camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno State, three young girls thought to be looking for shelter, were welcomed inside. What the guards who admitted them didn’t know, however, was that […]
Tag Archives: Boko Haram
Confronting the Unthinkable: The Complex Dimensions Behind Women and Child Suicide Bombers in Northern Nigeria
- 29 February 2016
The Rising Trend of Female Suicide Bombers in Nigeria
- 28 March 2015
BY ANIA SKINNER Jamāʻat Ahl as-Sunnahlid-daʻwa wal-Jihād (JAS), known widely as Boko Haram, has employed suicide bombers as a terrorist tactic in their insurgency against the Nigerian government since 2011. As of mid-2014, however, reports began to emerge of an alarming new dimension: the use of young women and girls in suicide missions. The first […]
Violence Affecting Women & Girls Quarterly Report 3
- 12 March 2015
BY PATRICIA TAFT* The following report summarizes the main findings from data collection and analysis for the November 2014 to January 2015 period. The number of overall incidents and fatalities reported in 2014 across the eight target states shows the highest levels of violence since 2009. While types of violence vary across states and time […]
Conflict Bulletin: Borno State – May 2014
- 07 May 2014
BY PATRICIA TAFT AND NATE HAKEN Borno State, the location of the April 2014 abduction of nearly 300 school girls, is at the heart of what has been called the “Boko Haram” insurgency. The insurgency, perpetrated by a militant group called Jamāʻat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-daʻwa wal-Jihād (JAS), began in 2009 as a mass uprising against […]
Nigeria: Beyond Terror and Militants
- 10 December 2012
BY NATE HAKEN, FILIPA CARREIRA, ELIZAVETA EGOROVA, RACHEL HERSH Not every explosion in northern Nigeria stems from the radicalism of Boko Haram. Nor is every outbreak of violence in the Niger Delta the result of militants fighting over oil revenues. Rather, violence in its different forms is an expression of a broader and deeper fabric […]