Boko Haram and the Geopolitics of Forced Migration in Nigeria

Abstract

Migration is currently perceived as an epitome of globalization and a measuring gauge of global geopolitical mobility. In recent years, Nigeria has been faced with a series of migratory crises such as insurgency and conflict, forcing large numbers of people to flee from their various residential origins to neighboring countries as refugees and asylum seekers or within their country as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). This study explores how geographical and political factors intersects to provide explanations on the types and causes of forced migration due to the Boko Haram insurgent activities in Nigeria. The research engages the use of content analysis to examine relevant secondary data on Boko Haram insurgent activities and the geopolitics of forced migration in Nigeria. It is reported that from the total number of 2.1 million forced migrants in Nigeria as of May 2017, 9.7% are refugees in neighboring countries while others are spatially distributed in different states around the country as internally displaced persons. Furthermore, it was revealed that more than 97% of the internally displaced persons migrated due to the Boko Haram insurgent activities from the northeastern part of the country. It concluded that the migratory crises in Nigeria is predominantly caused by the activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group that subsequently forced the people to flee their origin because of fear for their lives coupled with the risk of persecution and the destruction of properties.

A social network analysis of internally displaced communities in northeast Nigeria: potential conflicts with host communities in the Lake Chad region

“…Schilling et al (2013) found that the potential of conflict can increase in the receiving area of migrants, especially if the migration is internal, forced and largescale. Such conditions are similar to those present in northeast Nigeria, where large numbers of IDPs migrated within Nigeria as a result of the insurgency of Boko Haram and the counter-insurgency by the state forces (see also IOM, 2016;Mukhtar et al, 2018;Mbiyozo, 2017;Kamta et al, 2020a). It is expected that Africa will most likely experience high impacts of climate change including water scarcity and food security (Niang et al, 2014), with the potential of aggravating conflict, instability and insecurity (Borderon et al, 2019;Scheffran et al, 2019).…”

Access to healthcare and social determinants of health among female migrant beggars in Ibadan, Nigeria

“…Internal migrant beggars from the Northern areas of Nigeria is not an uncommon feature in Southern part of Nigeria; an earlier study corroborated this ( Salami et al., 2013 ). This has been attributed to many reasons including insecurity resulting from more than a decade long insurgency and other forms of violence in the Northern part of Nigeria ( Mukhtar et al., 2018 ; Kanu et al., 2019 ). Other reasons are poverty which is worse in the Northern part of Nigeria compared to the Southern part ( Kale, 2012 ).…”

The State of Conditions and Challenges Faced by Internally Displaced Women (Idw) in Nigeria: A Social Inclusion Perspective

“…Recently, Nigeria has been beset with issues on migratory crises such as insurgency and conflict, resulting in large numbers of its people fleeing their homes to neighbouring countries as refugees and asylum seekers or within their country as internally displaced persons (IDPs), (Mukhtar et al, 2018). The Boko Haram insurgency which emerged in 2002 began to use force in 2009 when the leader of the group, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed while in police custody (Emmanuelar, 2015).…”