1. Boko Haram:
The Other Islamic State
By JEREMY ASHKENAS, DEREK WATKINS and ARCHIE TSE
NEW YORK TIMES, JAN. 15, 2015
While much of the world has been focused on the rise of the Islamic State, another proto-Islamic
state has been waging a campaign of terror while dreaming of a caliphate in Nigeria. Since the
public execution of Boko Haram's founder in 2009 by Nigerian security forces, a hard-line
militant, Abubakar Shekau, has led this makeshift army of Islamist fighters through years of
escalating attacks on government personnel, religious leaders, young students, crowded
mosques and marketplaces.
May 2013-June 2014:State of Emergency
Nigeria’s president declares a state of emergency in the northeast, sending in more troops and
granting them additional powers of arrest and the ability to seize “any building or structure.”
Boko Haram responds with a wave of attacks, issuing an ultimatum to southern Nigerians living
in the north. Hundreds of thousands flee. The United Nations calls the brutality and frequency
of attacks on civilians “unprecedented.” According to data gathered from news reports by IHS
Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, Boko Haram killed about 2,000 people during the first
six months of 2014, nearly as many as during the entire previous four years. The attacks include:
• In July 2013, dozens of teenage male students are killed in a raid on a school in Buni Yadi.
• In August, Boko Haram fighters attack a mosque in Konduga with automatic weapons, killing
more than 40 people.
• In December, hundreds of militants attack an air force base and military checkpoint in
Maiduguri.
• In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnaps more than 250 schoolgirls in Chibok, setting off an
international outcry.
• In May, in a brutal attack on the border town of Gamboru Ngala, Boko Haram fires on a busy
marketplace, burns down houses, and shoots people attempting to flee; hundreds are killed.
Recent Weeks:Retaliation
In possible retribution for recent civilian and local militia resistance, Boko Haram strikes with
a series of mass-casualty attacks in northern capital cities, killing more than 200 people. The
attacks include:
• Nov. 25: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up at a bustling market in Maiduguri, killing
at least 45.
• Nov. 28: A bomb goes off at a central mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city, killing
120 people.

2. • Dec. 1: Boko Haram fighters stage a pre-dawn raid on government, police and military
buildings in Damaturu. In a repeat of the Nov. 25 attack, two female suicide bombers again
detonate bombs at the central Maiduguri market, killing dozens.
• January 2015: Boko Haram militants storm through a cluster of villages along the shores of
Lake Chad, burning, damaging or destroying thousands of buildings, according to human rights
groups. More than half of one town, Doro Gowon, the location of a now-destroyed military
base, appears to have been leveled, Humans Rights Sources: IHS Jane’s Terrorism and
Insurgency Center, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, Africa Center at the
Atlantic Council