Goodluck Jonathan

====2015====
Between 3 and 7 January 2015, Boko Haram attacked the town of [[Baga, Nigeria|Baga]] and [[2015 Baga massacre|killed up to 2,000 people]], perhaps the largest [[2015 Baga massacre|massacre]] by Boko Haram.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On 10 January 2015, a bomb attack took place at the Monday Market in [[Maiduguri]], killing 19 people.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} The city is considered to be at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency. In the early hours of 25 January 2015, Boko Haram launched a major assault on the city.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On 26 January 2015 [[CNN]] reported that the attack on Maiduguri by "hundreds of gunmen" had been repelled, but the nearby town of [[Monguno]] was captured by Boko Haram.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} The Nigerian Army claimed to have successfully repelled another attack on Maiduguri on 31 January 2015.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Starting in late January 2015, a coalition of military forces from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger began a [[counter-insurgency]] campaign against Boko Haram.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On 4 February 2015, the [[Military of Chad|Chad Army]] killed over 200 Boko Haram militants.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Soon afterwards, Boko Haram launched an attack on the Cameroonian town of [[Fotokol]], killing 81 civilians, 13 Chadian soldiers and 6 Cameroonian soldiers.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

On 17 February 2015 the Nigerian military retook Monguno in a coordinated air and ground assault.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On 7 March 2015, Boko Haram's leader [[Abubakar Shekau]] pledged allegiance to the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] (ISIL) via an audio message posted on the organisation's Twitter account.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Nigerian army spokesperson Sami Usman Kukasheka said the pledge was a sign of weakness and that Shekau was like a "drowning man". That same day, [[March 2015 Maiduguri suicide bombing|five suicide bomb blasts]] left 54 dead and 143 wounded. On 12 March 2015, ISIL's spokesman [[Abu Mohammad al-Adnani]] released an audiotape in which he welcomed the pledge of allegiance, and described it as an expansion of the group's caliphate to West Africa.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Following its declaration of loyalty to ISIL, Boko Haram was designated as the group's "West Africa Province" (Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP) while Shekau was appointed as its first [[Vali (governor)|vali]] (governor). Furthermore, ISIL started to support Boko Haram, but also began to interfere in its internal matters. For example, ISIL's central leadership attempted to reduce Boko Haram's brutality toward civilians and internal critics, as Shekau's ideology was "too extreme even for the Islamic State".{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

On 24 March 2015, residents of [[Damasak]], Nigeria said that Boko Haram had taken more than 400 women and children from the town as they fled from coalition forces.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On 27 March 2015, the Nigerian army captured [[Gwoza]], which was believed to be the location of Boko Haram headquarters.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On election day, 28 March 2015, Boko Haram extremists killed 41 people, including a legislator, to discourage hundreds from voting.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} [[Niger Army]] soldiers during [[counter-insurgency]] operations against Boko Haram in March 2015. In March 2015, Boko Haram lost control of the Northern Nigerian towns of [[Bama, Nigeria|Bama]] and [[Gwoza]] (believed to be their headquarters) to the [[Nigerian Army]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}  The Nigerian authorities said that they had taken back 11 of the 14 districts previously controlled by Boko Haram.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} In April 2016, four Boko Haram camps in the [[Sambisa Forest]] were overrun by the Nigerian military who freed nearly 300 females.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Boko Haram forces were believed to have retreated to the [[Mandara Mountains]], along the [[Cameroon–Nigeria border]]. On 16 March 2015, the Nigerian army said that it had recaptured Bama.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} On 27 March 2015, the day before the [[2015 Nigerian general election|Nigerian presidential election]], the [[Nigerian Army]] announced that it had recaptured the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

By April 2015, the Nigerian military was reported to have retaken most of the areas previously controlled by Boko Haram in Northeastern Nigeria, except for the [[Sambisa Forest]]. In May 2015, the Nigerian military announced that they had released about 700 women from camps in [[Sambisa Forest]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}