They killed some 20,000 people and displaced more than two million since it began a campaign of violence to create an Islamic state in the north of the country in 2009. They have burned villages, slaughtered men and boys who refuse to join their ranks, raped and enslaved women and girls, and strapped suicide bombs to terrified hostages.
Suicide attack in Nigeria
The extremist group has increasingly used women and youth as bombers, often after abducting and indoctrinating them A women suicide bomber attack hit a village near Konduga last month. The Nigerian military has made progress in the past weeks in chasing fighters from their forest hide-aut. Negotiations for the release of about 100 young women kidnapped from a school in Chibok in 2014 are still underway. Last week, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, appeared in a 10-minute video released by the group and disputed the Nigerian military’s claims that Boko Haram militants had been defeated in the Sambisa forest.
