Boko Haram

===Background===
{{Further|Fourth Nigerian Republic}}
Before it was [[History of Nigeria#A British sphere of influence|colonized]] and subsequently incorporated into the [[British Empire]] as [[Colonial Nigeria]] in 1900, the [[Bornu Empire]] ruled the territory where Boko Haram is currently active. It was a [[sovereign]] [[sultanate]] run according to the principles of the [[Constitution of Medina]], with a majority [[Kanuri people|Kanuri]] Muslim population. In 1903, both the [[Borno Emirate]] and [[Sokoto Caliphate]] had come under British rule. At this time, [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Missionary|missionaries]] spread the Christian message in the region and converted a large segment of the Nigerian populace.<ref name="Nigeria">[[Helen Chapin Metz]], ed., [http://countrystudies.us/nigeria/ "Influence of Christian Missions"], ''Nigeria: A Country Study'', Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. Retrievaed 18 April 2012.</ref> British rule ended when Nigeria was granted independence in 1960.<ref name="bbc20110826"/><ref>{{cite book |author=Martin Meredith |title=The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence |date=2011|chapter=5. Winds of Change|edition=illustrated |publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9780857203892|page=77|author-link=Martin Meredith |title-link=The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence }}</ref>
Except for a brief period of civilian rule between 1979 and 1983, Nigeria was governed by a series of military dictatorships from 1966 until the advent of democracy in 1999.

According to the Borno [[Sufism|Sufi]] [[Imam]] [[Sheikh|Sheik]] Fatahi, Yusuf was trained by the [[Kano (city)|Kano]] [[Salafi movement|Salafi]] [[Izala Society|Izala]] Sheik [[Ja'afar Mahmud Adam]]u, who called him the "leader of young people"; the two split some time in 2002–2004. They both preached in [[Maiduguri]]'s Indimi [[Mosque]], which was attended by the deputy governor of Borno.<ref>Gérard L. F. Chouin, Religion and bodycount in the Boko Haram crisis: evidence from the Nigeria Watch database, p. 214. {{ISBN|978-90-5448-135-5}}.</ref> Many of the group were reportedly inspired by Mohammed Marwa, known as [[Maitatsine]] ("He who curses others"), a self-proclaimed [[prophet]] (''annabi'', a [[Hausa language|Hausa]] word usually used only to describe the founder of Islam) born in [[British Cameroons|Northern Cameroon]] who condemned the reading of books other than the Quran.<ref name="George Percy Bargery 1934"/><ref name="managing"/><ref name=west/><ref name="worlddefensereview.com"/> In a 2009 [[BBC]] interview, Yusuf, expressed similarly [[pre-modern]] ideas on [[evolution]], a [[flat earth]], and rain sent directly from [[God]] rather than [[evaporation]].<ref name=bbc20090728/> Followers of Maitatsine "wreaked havoc" in northern cities of Nigeria "off and on" from 1980 to 1985.<ref name="Thurston-2019-24">{{cite book |last1=Thurston |first1=Alexander |title=Search Results Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=24 |isbn=9780691197081 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcmXDwAAQBAJ&dq=Wilayat+Gharb+Ifriqiyya&pg=PA17 |access-date=8 March 2021}}</ref>

[[Ethnic violence|Ethnic militancy]] is thought to have been one of the causes of the [[Nigerian Civil War|1967–1970 civil war]]; [[Religious violence in Nigeria|religious violence]] reached a new height in 1980 in Kano, the largest city in the north of the country, where the Muslim fundamentalist sect [[Yan Tatsine]] ("followers of Maitatsine") instigated [[1980 Kano riot|riots]] that resulted in four or five thousand deaths. 
In the ensuing military crackdown, Maitatsine was killed, fuelling a backlash of increased violence that spread across other northern cities over the next twenty years.<ref name="Martin Ewi">{{cite web |url=http://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/why-nigeria-needs-a-criminal-tribunal-and-not-amnesty-for-boko-haram |title=Why Nigeria needs a criminal tribunal and not amnesty for Boko Haram |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |author=Martin Ewi |date=24 June 2013 |access-date=30 July 2014}}</ref> Social inequality and poverty contributed both to the Maitatsine and Boko Haram uprisings.<ref name=journals/>{{rp|97–98}}

In the decades since the end of British rule, politicians and academics from the mainly Islamic North have expressed their fundamental opposition to Western education. Political ethno-religious interest groups, whose membership includes influential political, military and religious leaders, have thrived in Nigeria, though they were largely suppressed under military rule. Their [[paramilitary]] wings, formed since the country's return to civilian rule, have been implicated in much of the sectarian violence in the years following. The [[Arewa People's Congress]], the militia wing of the [[Arewa Consultative Forum]], the main political group representing the interests of northern Nigeria, is a well-funded group with military and intelligence expertise and is considered capable of engaging in military action, including covert bombing.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Kirk |title=Revolt in the North: Interpreting Boko Haram's war on western education |url=https://africanarguments.org/2014/05/revolt-in-the-north-interpreting-boko-harams-war-on-western-education-by-kirk-ross/ |website=African Arguments |date=19 May 2014}}</ref>