Women, Gender and the evolving tactics of Boko Haram

Zenn, Jacob; Pearson, Elizabeth

doi:10.15664/jtr.828

Cited by 72 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In terms of the reaction against health workers and health programmes there is something peculiar going on here with a group that is seeking control of territory, and control of law over that territory, also seeking to control the bodies that are within it, their health and the medicines that they have access to. A related reading could be made of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls (Peters ) and of the group's more general targeting of women (Zenn and Pearson ). One thing that the programmes and the resistance to them shows is that geopolitics and biopolitics need to be understood together, bodies in place and places embodied.…”

Section: The Biopolitics and Geopolitics Of Nigeria's ‘War On Terror’mentioning

confidence: 99%

The geopolitics of Boko Haram and Nigeria's ‘war on terror’

Elden

2014

Geographical Journal

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The April 2014 kidnapping of the schoolgirls at Chibok, north‐eastern Nigeria, has meant that Boko Haram is now widely discussed by Western governments and in Western media. Yet within Nigeria the group has been well known for several years. Boko Haram's activities, or actions attributed to the group, have developed in a range of ways, many contradictory, including bombings, kidnappings of Europeans within Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon, killing of medical personnel, and overtures for dialogue with the Federal Government. There are recurrent reports of links to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and in the past few years the United States has taken a much more active role in the region. Some of the wider geopolitical issues relate to the French‐led intervention in Mali; a country to which Nigeria has also sent troops. This article tries to disentangle these different questions. It looks first at who Boko Haram are, and their history. It situates the group within the wider context of Nigerian politics, and to discuss the biopolitical and geopolitical elements of their operations and of the actions of the Nigerian security services and other actors towards them. It ends by relating what is happening within and beyond Nigeria to the wider context of the ‘war on terror’.

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Section: The Biopolitics and Geopolitics Of Nigeria's ‘War On Terror’mentioning

confidence: 99%

The geopolitics of Boko Haram and Nigeria's ‘war on terror’

Elden

2014

Geographical Journal

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“…While these movements are creating administrative and governance institutions, providing services and other benefits to civilians, and implementing proactive strategies to ensure women are encouraged to feel ownership of the jihadi project, the JAS approach has alienated civilians. Indeed, its tactics have been characterised by attacks on communities, most notably in the widespread abductions of women and girls, at levels not seen by other jihadi groups (BBC News 2014;Zenn and Pearson 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jihadi Groups and State-Building: The Case of Boko Haram in Nigeria

Ladbury¹,

Allamin²,

Nagarajan³

et al. 2016

Stability: International Journal of Security and Development

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The following article considers the extent to which the Nigerian jihadi group, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (JAS), also known as Boko Haram, is transforming its model of governance from domination by violence and force to governance through civil administration and public support. Drawing on over four years of research and programming in north-east Nigeria, the authors consider three aspects of such a transformation: the development of institutions, the propagation of an ideology and programmes to win over the hearts and minds of the wider population, and the role assigned to women and girls. The article finds that JAS has established little in the way of a civilian administration in the areas that have come under its control. Likewise, the movement has apparently made no concerted effort to project a vision of a future society or concrete benefits of the envisaged caliphate that would generate a level of public support. Moreover, the brutal treatment of women and girls belies any attempt by the movement to promote a positive vision of the role of women, even as wives and mothers. In this, JAS is seen to differ from a number of other jihadi movements that have relatively sophisticated approaches to generating popular support and recruiting members. The article goes on to suggest a number of reasons for JAS's failure to move towards a polity that is more consensual and less dependent on violence, as well as its implications for those who would seek to restrain the expansion and ideological reach of jihadist groups. It concludes by offering suggestions of how the government can seize the opportunity presented by this lack of a state-building strategy, in order to show the people of north-east Nigeria that it can offer a better alternative.

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“…Either women are regarded as equals and as capable as men to carry out important roles or, in the case of a preference to use women/girls as suicide bombers, it might indicate the exact opposite, namely that women are dispensable -cannon fodder to be sacrificed for a strategic goal. [45] It might also be a tactical response to provide more 'manpower'. Be it as it may, girls are no longer regarded as the weaker sex limited to supporting male soldiers at the frontline.…”

Section: Girls and Woman As Preferred Suicide Bombersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Africa’s Child Soldiers/Suicide Children: A Regulatory Framework

Olivier¹

2018

IJLS

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Despite the prohibition of child soldiers by international law, recent African conflicts have witnessed a persistence of this phenomenon, which is becoming ever more specialised. An example of such specialist involvement of children in African armed conflicts is the use of young children, especially girls as suicide bombers by the jihadist terrorist groups Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab. Using children in armed conflict is regarded as amongst the worst forms of child abuse under international law and African regional law. This article examines the almost unprecedented threat to the human rights of children created by child soldiers and specifically child suicide bombers with the objective of identifying major weaknesses in the responses by both general international law and African Union legal instruments. Despite the comprehensive engagement of international regulations with children in armed conflict, they are silent on the practice of using children for the specific purpose of suicide bombings. This article considers the question whether child suicide bombers can be considered to be child soldiers and as such should benefit from the regulations applicable to the latter category. This is established through an analysis of both the general international law and African Union legal frameworks on the rights of the child; child labour; children in armed conflict; and terrorism within the context of available information on the current wave of suicide bombings by young girls in West-Africa. It is suggested that child suicide bombings in a West-African context in effect constitutes a new form of improvised explosive device, but moreover should be regarded as a recognised form of child soldiering and terrorism. Although international law and scholarship do not provide adequate responses to this complex problem, it is suggested that child suicide bombings violate the letter and the spirit of the international regulations identified. This points to a clear need for more focussed scholarly research and comprehensive international engagement in order to understand and more effectively regulate this extreme form of child abuse within the already established context of children in armed conflict.

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Women, Gender and the evolving tactics of Boko Haram

Abstract: This article addresses an under-researched aspect of Boko Haram's activities: gender-based violence (GBV)

Cited by 72 publications

References 16 publications

The geopolitics of Boko Haram and Nigeria's ‘war on terror’

The geopolitics of Boko Haram and Nigeria's ‘war on terror’

Jihadi Groups and State-Building: The Case of Boko Haram in Nigeria

Africa’s Child Soldiers/Suicide Children: A Regulatory Framework

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