Small Wars Journal

Nigeria Falls Into 'a State of War' as Islamist Insurgency Rages

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 8:11am

Nigeria Falls Into 'a State of War' as Islamist Insurgency Rages by David Smith and Gillian Parker, The Guardian

More than 1,300 people have died in the past two months as an insurgent Islamist group, Boko Haram, wages a rebellion rooted in poverty, corruption, religion and geography.

… Boko Haram is believed to be responsible for killing at least 1,300 people in the past two months and more than 130 people in the past week. The radical sect claims ties to al-Qaida and has ambitions to impose sharia law on Nigeria's 170 million people. In Boko Haram's heartland, even the national military is outgunned in what is fast becoming a lesson to the world in how not to tackle an Islamist insurgency…

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