The Grassroots Resistance to Boko Haram

The Grassroots Resistance to Boko Haram

Ya Gana Mohammed was asleep in her bed, her husband dozing at her side and her seven children breathing softly in the warm October night, when the militia came. The Boko Haram fighters rampaged through her small town, which hugs the shore of Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state, shooting civilians, snatching children, looting and wreaking havoc. She bolted from her home as panic gripped the town. “As I ran away, you could hear them ex…

FlashBack: Sultan of Sokoto Condemns Boko Haram Crackdown - Global Upfront Newspapers

BBC, July 21, 2011 The Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslims, has condemned the military crackdown against the Islamist Boko Haram sect. “We cannot solve violence with violence,” Mohamed Sa’ad Abubakar told a meeting of religious leaders. The Boko Haram, based in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, says it is fighting for Islamic rule. It has been behind recent assassinations of prominent figures and a wave of bombings. Tw…