A Study of the Strategic and Tactical Dynamics of Boko Haram’s Violence around the Lake Chad Basin, 2012-2018
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31150/ajshr.v3i12.1813Keywords:
Boko Haram, security governance, counterinsurgency operations, Lake ChadAbstract
The effectiveness of the Boko Haram (Islamic terrorist group in Nigeria) strategy had significant effect on troops and battlefield outcomes in the counter insurgency operations of the Lake Chad Basin. This paper examines the strategy of Boko Haram insurgents across national borders around the Lake Chad Basin from 2012 to 2018. The various phases of the insurgency attracted the responses of Lake Chad Basin states to put the group in a worsted situation. With field evidence from participants and observers drawn from soldiers and Special Forces of the Multinational Joint Task Force as well as stakeholders of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, complemented by secondary sources, the paper identified and analysed the strategy and tactics of Boko Haram and their effect on the duration and intensity of insurgency around Lake Chad Basin. The geopolitical challenges that make it difficult to contain the insurgency and, consequently, magnify the duration of the insurgency are examined from the lenses of the political theories of territory, ungoverned spaces and victory. The findings showed that the Boko Haram sect sustained the war by utilising a strategy that profits from the swath of ungoverned spaces around the fluid boundaries and borderlands of states of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB). At the operational level, the paper showed that the sect has been consistent in recruitment, training, and procurement of arms. This made the insurgency intractable and attracted the trans-border regional security commitment of states of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB).
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