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![handle is hein.crs/govegkq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service
Infmrming the legislitive debate since 1914
Updated February 24, 2022
Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province
Armed Islamist violence continues to roil northeast Nigeria
and nearby border regions more than a decade since Boko
Haram launched an insurgency against the Nigerian state.
In recent years, an Islamic State-affiliated offshoot, the
Islamic State West Africa Province (IS-WA, aka ISIS-WA
or ISWAP), has established itself as the stronger faction and
one of the most active IS affiliates globally. The conflict in
the Lake Chad Basin (Fig. 1) has killed tens of thousands,
displaced millions, and fueled a vast humanitarian crisis.
The United States has provided counterterrorism and other
assistance to governments battling Boko Haram and IS-
WA, and has been the top country donor of humanitarian
assistance in the Lake Chad Basin. Abuses by local security
forces in the region have been a source of concern among
some Members of Congress and have raised challenges for
U.S. security assistance and military sales.
Background and the Rise of IS-WA
Boko Haram emerged in the early 2000s as a Salafist Sunni
Muslim reform movement based in Borno State, northeast
Nigeria-an area long afflicted by poverty and inequality,
corrupt and contentious politics, and fierce debate over the
proper role of Islam in governance and society. Its founder,
Muhammad Yusuf, opposed Western influence and
Christianity as well as more moderate forms of Islam. After
falling out with local authorities, Boko Haram launched
attacks on police stations in several northern Nigerian cities
in 2009. In response, Nigerian security forces detained and
executed Yusuf and killed hundreds of his adherents.
Boko Haram regrouped under Yusuf's former deputy,
Abubakar Shekau, expanding operations to include large-
scale bombings, assertions of territorial control, and cross-
border attacks in neighboring countries. It earned notoriety
for its brutality, including its use of women and children as
suicide bombers, and drew global attention with its 2014
abduction of 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Borno
State, which gave rise to the Bring Back Our Girls social
media campaign. In 2015, Shekau pledged allegiance to IS,
and Boko Haram rebranded as IS-WA. An internal dispute
later fractured the group; IS recognized another IS-WA
leader in 2016, and Shekau's faction reassumed its original
name, continuing to be commonly known as Boko Haram.
IS-WA has distanced itself from the indiscriminate violence
that came to characterize Boko Haram, renouncing the
killing of Muslim civilians and vowing to focus attacks on
Christians and state targets. It reportedly has provided some
state-like services (e.g., basic law enforcement) in its areas
of operation, forging ties with some communities. By 2020,
U.N. monitors assessed that IS-WA had outstripped Boko
Haram in size and capacity and was operating with a high
degree of success [...] including by conducting raids on
security forces, which have yielded significant war spoils in
the form of materiel and other supplies.
Figure I. The Lake Chad Basin Region
Source: CRS Graphic.
Shekau's Death and Recent Tren ds
In May 2021, IS-WA militants killed Boko Haram leader
Shekau, prompting thousands of people-including former
Boko Haram fighters, their families, and civilians fleeing
Boko Haram-held zones-to surrender to Nigerian and
Cameroonian authorities. A number of Boko Haram
commanders reportedly joined IS-WA following Shekau's
death. One remnant Boko Haram faction remains active
around Lake Chad, in far northeastern Borno State.
Shekau's death signified the demise of one of the world's
most notorious extremists, and it appears to have left Boko
Haram in disarray. Still, prospects for an end to violence in
northeast Nigeria appear tenuous. Analysts and Nigerian
officials have warned that IS-WA may prove to be a more
resilient threat, citing IS-WA's efforts to build legitimacy in
areas it governs and its reputedly strong resource base. As
of early 2022, U.N. analysts estimated IS-WA to have
4,000-5,000 fighters. The group continues to attack military
facilities, killing soldiers and looting materiel, and funds
itself through raiding, kidnapping for ransom, and taxing
local populations and commerce. Primarily active in
northeast Nigeria, IS-WA also continues to mount attacks
in adjacent zones of neighboring countries, primarily
targeting local military positions.
Amid rising insecurity in other parts of northern Nigeria
and in the Sahel region, to Nigeria's north, concern has
mounted over a possible convergence of security threats.
U.N. investigators report that IS-WA has links to another IS
faction, known as IS-Greater Sahara, active in Burkina
Faso, Mali, and Niger, though each group appears primarily
focused on local aims. Some Boko Haram members have
reportedly moved west, establishing a cell in Nigeria's
Niger State (Fig. 2) that claimed several attacks in 2021. In
neighboring Kaduna State, another Boko Haram splinter
group known as Ansaru, which claims affiliation with Al
Qaeda, has apparently reactivated after a period of
dormancy, preaching in local mosques and clashing with
criminal groups. Other former Boko Haram combatants
reportedly have joined criminal gangs in rural northwest
and north-central Nigeria known locally as bandit groups.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govegkq0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)