Peace Review
A Journal of Social Justice
Volume 34, 2022 – Issue 3
Abstract
Nigeria’s counter-terrorism campaign against the dreaded Boko Haramsect has relied heavily on the use of force. Successive administra-tions have often preferred a coercive approach to address the state’s secur-ity challenges that range from ethnic conflict to religious crises andelectoral conflict, to mention but a few. It is within this context that theNigerian government’s fight against Boko Haram can be understood.However, the extreme use of force has led to extrajudicial killings, intimi-dation of people living in Boko Haram hotspots and indiscriminate attacksthat often result in mass casualties among innocent citizens. For example,in 2013 the Nigerian security forces killed hundreds and injured aroundthe same number of people in Baga in Borno state. In 2017, a NigerianAir Force bomb detonated in the internally displaced people’s camp inRann in Borno state killed around hundred civilians (Allison2017). Thesecurity forces continue to indiscriminately arrest and detain those sus-pected to be associated with Boko Haram and they are denied access tofamily members and lawyers. In June 2020 alone, 602 such people werereleased to the Borno government for resettlement (Amnesty International2020). A major shortcoming of this approach is that it triggers reprisalattacks with massive civilian casualties. Boko Haram’s reign of terror,particularly since 2009, has resulted in more than 30, 000 deaths withover two million people displaced (Paquette and Alfa,2020).
Oluwaseun Tella
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