Boko Haram Kills 15 in Northern Nigeria
Suspected members of the jihadist group Boko Haram killed at least 15 people in an attack on villages in northeast Nigeria on October 31, where much of the government’s efforts against the militants have taken place. After the attacks, the Nigerian military announced that “one civilian was found dead,” after the jihadists “ransacked” a market and set fire to multiple buildings, Reuters reports. According to Al Jazeera, Boko Haram attacked two different villages as well as a camp housing internally displaced persons (IDP). In an interview with the AFP news agency, militia leader Babakura Kolo stated that “the terrorists attacked and completely burned Bulaburin and Kofa villages and burned half the Dalori 2 IDP (internally displaced persons) camp.” Kolo explained that nine people died in the town of Bulaburin, two were killed in Dalori, and one was killed in Jofa. The conflict between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram is long-standing and largely centralized in country’s northern region and Borno state.
The same week, protests erupted in the capital city, in which 400 people were arrested by Nigerian security forces, according to BBC. The protestors were affiliated with the Pro-Iran Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), whose members insisted that IMN leader Ibraheem Zakzaky be released from prison. Twelve-thousand displaced persons live in the Dalori 2 camp, where a skirmish between the militants and the camp’s security forces and troops ultimately resulted in the militants’ takeover of the makeshift facility, reports Al Jazeera. Solomon Adamu, a member of the civilian militia camp, stated that “soldiers and civilian JTF (militia) at the gate engaged them in gunfight but were forced to withdraw into the camp because we were outgunned.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) responded to the attacks by proposing that the Nigerian government increase its security for displaced persons in camps. In an interview with Voice of America, OCHA representative Jens Laerke said that the conditions in Borno state were unsafe: “the entire environment there is highly militarized… that goes both for the government forces and, of course, the armed groups which are there.” According to a report by Voice of America, there are nine IDP camps in Dalori which were established in 2015 and currently house 47,500 people. According to the United Nations, more than 27,000 people have died since the conflict between militants and the Nigerian military began in 2009.
Research published by the UN Refugee Agency sheds light on migration and refugee issues in the country. As of September 30, 2018, there were a combined 230,381 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. There are a total of 1,918,508 internally displaced persons, 94 percent of which have been “displaced [as a result of] the insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.”