this Nigeria based terrorist group is
using fear and violence in its bid to
establish an Islamic caliphate and
eliminate Western influence welcome to
watchmojo.com –nt we’re counting down
ten crucial facts you should know about
Boko Haram number ten what is Boko Haram
with an official name that translates
roughly to people committed to the
prophets teachings for propagation and
jihad Boko Haram is a militant extremist
Islamic group grounded primarily in the
northeastern region of Nigeria with
their presence also felt in Chad Niger
and Cameroon locals bestowed the
nickname Boko Haram on them and it
loosely translates to Western education
is forbidden
founded in 2002 with the aim of building
an Islamic state the group was fairly
low-key until 2009 when it became more
militant and more violent roughly around
the time its founder Muhammad Youssef
was executed by Nigerian police Boko
Haram’s focus has since grown in size
and scope and several countries have
responded by labeling it a terrorist
organization and an affiliate of al
Qaeda number nine what is the current
situation by 2014 Nigeria had the
highest gross domestic product of any
country in Africa making it one of if
not the richest nation on the continent
with its natural resources and oil
helping to push its GDP to a worth of
five hundred and ten billion dollars
plus the country is home to an estimated
185 million making it Africa’s largest
country by population as well however
wealth distribution remains unequal in
Nigeria leaving a huge divide between
rich and poor north and south the
resulting conflict coupled with the
increasingly violent attacks by Boko
Haram have forced upwards of 1 million
Nigerians to flee the country with most
seeking refuge in neighboring countries
like camera
oonh Nigerian President Goodluck
Jonathan’s government has also faced
widespread criticism especially with
regards to his government’s handling of
the chibok schoolgirls kidnapping that
occurred in April 2014 the theory of the
Nigerian government’s corruption was
corroborated in 2013 by the US State
Department’s country reports on Human
Rights practices which stated that the
country was home to quote massive
widespread pervasive corruption which
affected all levels of government and
the security forces number eight who is
the leader of Boko Haram following the
death of founder Mohammad youssuf
leadership of the movement shifted to
his next in command
Abubakar Shekau this hardline militant
has spearheaded the growth of the
group’s operations in scope and
direction leading to thousands of deaths
and hundreds of kidnappings he’s a
fanatic look well-versed in Islamic law
he takes hasty decisions and his very
hard line with Islamic matters on more
than one occasion the leader has been
reported dead by local media following
fights between Boko Haram and military
forces only for him to resurface later
in videos where he brags of his
invincibility and mocks the government’s
attempts to kill him
however some media sources maintain that
Shekau is in fact dead and body doubles
have been used to maintain the myth that
he is unkillable whether or not that’s
true the US State Department has been
offering a reward of seven million
dollars since 2013 for information
leading to the capture of Shekau number
seven what is the group’s ultimate goal
the ultimate goal of Boko Haram is to
carve out an Islamic caliphate in
Nigeria thereby establishing Sharia or
Islamic law throughout the land because
of their disdain for Western
civilization and their belief that that
sort of thought promotes secularism many
of their targets have been students as
they also hold that schools brainwash
students to the Western Way of thought
the group has major allies in fellow
jihadist terrorist groups al Qaeda and
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
or as it’s better known ISIL or Isis to
fund their activities and add to their
already huge stores of weaponry Boko
Haram engages in various black market
activities accepts donations from
international backers and takes
advantage of their links to other Middle
Eastern groups not only that but they’re
also capitalizing on their kidnappings
by selling people as slaves or with
ransom demands all of these sources make
it very difficult to cut off Boko
Haram’s funding and therefore its power
number six how has Africa reacted to
this threat and you mentioned that
terrorism is the great decision places
the grid has in terms of security
increases for now in May 2013
Nigerian President Jonathan extended the
already established state of emergency
to further cover the northeastern region
of the country to include the states of
Borno Yobe and Adamawa in addition
various military operations attempted to
crack the group’s stranglehold on the
region the tactic was an attempt to curb
the violent attacks in these regions but
it seemed to have little to no effect on
quelling the Islamic militants efforts
and in fact resulted in even higher
tensions number 5 why did they kidnap a
group of female students Boko Haram
truly got the attention of international
media in April 2014 when 276 girls were
kidnapped from their school in the
middle of the night in the town of
chibok in Borno State citing the belief
that girls should not be educated and
should instead be married off though
approximately fifty escaped over the
next few weeks the rest of the girls
remained with the group in October of
that year it was announced that an
agreement had been reached which would
see the kidnapped girls returned home
however shortly thereafter a Boko Haram
video surfaced wherein Abubakar Shekau
stated that the girls had been converted
to Islam married off to members of the
terrorist group and used as slaves
shattering the idea that the girls would
be released number four how has the
world reacted the kidnapping of the
girls from chibok sparked worldwide
outrage and launched a social media
campaign
with the Twitter handle bring back our
girls becoming a symbol of support the
campaign drew millions of supporters
including US First Lady Michelle Obama
and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala
yousufzai countries around the world
pledged aid and support in terms of
funds specialized teams intelligence
experts and more number three why did
Boko Haram target Baga in what has been
called Boko Haram’s worst attacks to
date the town of Baga in the state of
Borno became the target of a rash of
mass killings from January 3rd to the
7th 2015 they caught us as we were
leaving town they separated the children
from the adults who were asked to lie
down they were shot dead it’s believed
that the town was targeted due to its
tactical significance to Boko Haram as
the final town in that region still
controlled by the Nigerian government
and a site of vital military stations
Nigerian government forces attempted to
fend off the attack on the multinational
Joint Task Force Base but after hours of
intense fighting they were forced to
escape with the citizens Boko Haram then
ran rampant invading the town setting
fire to buildings and causing
significant damage to the area number
two what was the aftermath of the Baga
massacre in the days following the
attack on Baga
international media was largely occupied
with coverage of the shoddy Abdo
shooting in Paris and therefore exposure
to the Nigerian news story was limited
it was only after satellite imagery was
provided that a more complete image of
the aftermath was revealed in Baga and
neighboring towns over 3700 structures
were completely razed we killed the
people of Baga we indeed kill them as
our Lord instructed us in his book
reports varied wildly regarding the
extent of the damage and casualties but
many sources claimed that over 2,000
people were killed in this attack alone
although the Nigerian government places
the number closer to 150 number one how
might this end
weeks after the 2015 attacks on the city
of Baga it appeared as though Boko Haram
had continued their rampage as they
attacked the city of monguno which was
home to a large military base insurgents
continued their advancement to the city
of Maiduguri and Amnesty International
warned that the situation put hundreds
of thousands of civilians at grave risk
theories at this time suggested that the
group’s plans might see them expand
further into neighboring countries like
Cameroon and Chad in a bid to see their
dream of an Islamic caliphate come to
fruition only time will tell if the
increased international focus on the
Boko Haram problem will prove helpful
did these facts surprise you to vote for
which news story is covered next
head over to watchmojo.com slash suggest
and be sure to hit that subscribe button
for more newsworthy top 10s published
every week
using fear and violence in its bid to
establish an Islamic caliphate and
eliminate Western influence welcome to
watchmojo.com –nt we’re counting down
ten crucial facts you should know about
Boko Haram number ten what is Boko Haram
with an official name that translates
roughly to people committed to the
prophets teachings for propagation and
jihad Boko Haram is a militant extremist
Islamic group grounded primarily in the
northeastern region of Nigeria with
their presence also felt in Chad Niger
and Cameroon locals bestowed the
nickname Boko Haram on them and it
loosely translates to Western education
is forbidden
founded in 2002 with the aim of building
an Islamic state the group was fairly
low-key until 2009 when it became more
militant and more violent roughly around
the time its founder Muhammad Youssef
was executed by Nigerian police Boko
Haram’s focus has since grown in size
and scope and several countries have
responded by labeling it a terrorist
organization and an affiliate of al
Qaeda number nine what is the current
situation by 2014 Nigeria had the
highest gross domestic product of any
country in Africa making it one of if
not the richest nation on the continent
with its natural resources and oil
helping to push its GDP to a worth of
five hundred and ten billion dollars
plus the country is home to an estimated
185 million making it Africa’s largest
country by population as well however
wealth distribution remains unequal in
Nigeria leaving a huge divide between
rich and poor north and south the
resulting conflict coupled with the
increasingly violent attacks by Boko
Haram have forced upwards of 1 million
Nigerians to flee the country with most
seeking refuge in neighboring countries
like camera
oonh Nigerian President Goodluck
Jonathan’s government has also faced
widespread criticism especially with
regards to his government’s handling of
the chibok schoolgirls kidnapping that
occurred in April 2014 the theory of the
Nigerian government’s corruption was
corroborated in 2013 by the US State
Department’s country reports on Human
Rights practices which stated that the
country was home to quote massive
widespread pervasive corruption which
affected all levels of government and
the security forces number eight who is
the leader of Boko Haram following the
death of founder Mohammad youssuf
leadership of the movement shifted to
his next in command
Abubakar Shekau this hardline militant
has spearheaded the growth of the
group’s operations in scope and
direction leading to thousands of deaths
and hundreds of kidnappings he’s a
fanatic look well-versed in Islamic law
he takes hasty decisions and his very
hard line with Islamic matters on more
than one occasion the leader has been
reported dead by local media following
fights between Boko Haram and military
forces only for him to resurface later
in videos where he brags of his
invincibility and mocks the government’s
attempts to kill him
however some media sources maintain that
Shekau is in fact dead and body doubles
have been used to maintain the myth that
he is unkillable whether or not that’s
true the US State Department has been
offering a reward of seven million
dollars since 2013 for information
leading to the capture of Shekau number
seven what is the group’s ultimate goal
the ultimate goal of Boko Haram is to
carve out an Islamic caliphate in
Nigeria thereby establishing Sharia or
Islamic law throughout the land because
of their disdain for Western
civilization and their belief that that
sort of thought promotes secularism many
of their targets have been students as
they also hold that schools brainwash
students to the Western Way of thought
the group has major allies in fellow
jihadist terrorist groups al Qaeda and
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
or as it’s better known ISIL or Isis to
fund their activities and add to their
already huge stores of weaponry Boko
Haram engages in various black market
activities accepts donations from
international backers and takes
advantage of their links to other Middle
Eastern groups not only that but they’re
also capitalizing on their kidnappings
by selling people as slaves or with
ransom demands all of these sources make
it very difficult to cut off Boko
Haram’s funding and therefore its power
number six how has Africa reacted to
this threat and you mentioned that
terrorism is the great decision places
the grid has in terms of security
increases for now in May 2013
Nigerian President Jonathan extended the
already established state of emergency
to further cover the northeastern region
of the country to include the states of
Borno Yobe and Adamawa in addition
various military operations attempted to
crack the group’s stranglehold on the
region the tactic was an attempt to curb
the violent attacks in these regions but
it seemed to have little to no effect on
quelling the Islamic militants efforts
and in fact resulted in even higher
tensions number 5 why did they kidnap a
group of female students Boko Haram
truly got the attention of international
media in April 2014 when 276 girls were
kidnapped from their school in the
middle of the night in the town of
chibok in Borno State citing the belief
that girls should not be educated and
should instead be married off though
approximately fifty escaped over the
next few weeks the rest of the girls
remained with the group in October of
that year it was announced that an
agreement had been reached which would
see the kidnapped girls returned home
however shortly thereafter a Boko Haram
video surfaced wherein Abubakar Shekau
stated that the girls had been converted
to Islam married off to members of the
terrorist group and used as slaves
shattering the idea that the girls would
be released number four how has the
world reacted the kidnapping of the
girls from chibok sparked worldwide
outrage and launched a social media
campaign
with the Twitter handle bring back our
girls becoming a symbol of support the
campaign drew millions of supporters
including US First Lady Michelle Obama
and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala
yousufzai countries around the world
pledged aid and support in terms of
funds specialized teams intelligence
experts and more number three why did
Boko Haram target Baga in what has been
called Boko Haram’s worst attacks to
date the town of Baga in the state of
Borno became the target of a rash of
mass killings from January 3rd to the
7th 2015 they caught us as we were
leaving town they separated the children
from the adults who were asked to lie
down they were shot dead it’s believed
that the town was targeted due to its
tactical significance to Boko Haram as
the final town in that region still
controlled by the Nigerian government
and a site of vital military stations
Nigerian government forces attempted to
fend off the attack on the multinational
Joint Task Force Base but after hours of
intense fighting they were forced to
escape with the citizens Boko Haram then
ran rampant invading the town setting
fire to buildings and causing
significant damage to the area number
two what was the aftermath of the Baga
massacre in the days following the
attack on Baga
international media was largely occupied
with coverage of the shoddy Abdo
shooting in Paris and therefore exposure
to the Nigerian news story was limited
it was only after satellite imagery was
provided that a more complete image of
the aftermath was revealed in Baga and
neighboring towns over 3700 structures
were completely razed we killed the
people of Baga we indeed kill them as
our Lord instructed us in his book
reports varied wildly regarding the
extent of the damage and casualties but
many sources claimed that over 2,000
people were killed in this attack alone
although the Nigerian government places
the number closer to 150 number one how
might this end
weeks after the 2015 attacks on the city
of Baga it appeared as though Boko Haram
had continued their rampage as they
attacked the city of monguno which was
home to a large military base insurgents
continued their advancement to the city
of Maiduguri and Amnesty International
warned that the situation put hundreds
of thousands of civilians at grave risk
theories at this time suggested that the
group’s plans might see them expand
further into neighboring countries like
Cameroon and Chad in a bid to see their
dream of an Islamic caliphate come to
fruition only time will tell if the
increased international focus on the
Boko Haram problem will prove helpful
did these facts surprise you to vote for
which news story is covered next
head over to watchmojo.com slash suggest
and be sure to hit that subscribe button
for more newsworthy top 10s published
every week
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