There has long been friction between the two groups. However, recently Boka Haram, a terrorist group loosely affiliated with al Qaeda, has escalated the reach and level of violence of the conflict by bombing targets in the south.
While Nigerian authorities have had some success breaking up the leadership of Boka Haram, they've so far been unsuccessful at tracking down the bomb makers. It is expected that, in the near term at least, bombings and other attacks will continue to pose a threat to soft targets, including hotels Westerners frequent, in the south.
For this article I'm going to skip the usual foolishness that surrounds my Hot Stratfor Babe schtick. While looking through Nigerian actresses I selected Mary Remmy. While researching her biography I came across the following Nollywood Gossip article that was dated November 11, 2011:
Eucharia Remmy, the sister of fast rising Nollywood actress Mary Remmy is dead, Nollywoodgossip can confirm.Of course I extend my condolences also. It is easy to abstract the news and forget just how horrific the bombings and violence is, and how many people suffer as a result.
Eucharia, who graduated from the University of Nigeria Nsukka in 2010, was undergoing her youth service at Damaturu in Yobe state when she was attacked and killed by Boko Haram. The bomb attack that killed her was said to have so far left 150 people dead.
Her actress sister Mary is famous for her roles in hit movies Beyonce and Rihanna and Blackberry Babes.
May her soul rest in peace.
As for Ms Remmy, she appears to be a popular young actress who is quickly making a name for herself in Nollywood, the local film industry. I've watched a number of clips of her and, while it is a little hard to tell because Nigerian films are so low budget and eccentric to Western eyes, she does seem to be a decent actress.
As a bonus, after the article I've included a clip of her dumping her boyfriend from the comedy BlackBerry Babes. BTW, the film is in English, as apparently are a lot of Nollywood films, so you can understand the dialog.
The Rising Thewat from Nigeria's Boka Haram Militant Group
By Scott Stewart, November 10,2011
The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, issued a warning Nov. 5 indicating it had received intelligence that the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram may have been planning to bomb several targets in the Nigerian capital during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, also known as Eid al-Kabir, celebrated Nov. 6-8. The warning specifically mentioned the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels as potential targets.
The warning came in the wake of a string of bombings and armed attacks Nov. 4 in the cities of Maiduguri, Damaturu and Potiskum, all of which are located in Nigeria’s northeast. An attack also occurred in the north-central Nigerian city of Kaduna. The sites targeted in the wave of attacks included a military base in Maiduguri and the anti-terrorism court building in Damaturu. Militants reportedly attacked these two sites with suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs). The Nigerian Red Cross reported that more than 100 people were killed in the attacks, while some media reports claimed the death toll was at least 150.
According to AFP, a spokesman for Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks Nov. 5 and threatened more attacks targeting the Nigerian government until “security forces stop persecuting our members and vulnerable civilians.” On Nov. 7, a Boko Haram spokesman claimed that his group employed only two suicide operatives in the attacks and not 12 as reported by some media outlets.
Though Eid al-Kabir passed without attacks on Western hotels in Abuja, a deeper examination of Boko Haram is called for, with a specific focus on its rapidly evolving tactical capabilities.
Boko Haram
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful” in Hausa, was established in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state. It has since spread to several other northern and central Nigerian states. The group officially is known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, Arabic for “group committed to propagating the Prophet’s teachings and jihad.” Some in the country have referred to Boko Haram as the Nigerian Taliban in reference to the group’s call for Shariah throughout Nigeria. (At present, only the northern part of the country adheres to Shariah.) In June, a spokesman claiming to represent Boko Haram amended this demand, instead calling for what the group defines as a stricter form of Shariah in the northern Nigerian states where Shariah already is the law.
With approximately 150 million people, Nigeria is the most populous African country and one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It has some 250 distinct ethnic groups, with the dominant groups being the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani, along with a smaller but critical fourth group, the Ijaw. These groups are in constant tension as they attempt to dominate the nation’s politics and the allocation of its natural resources. Approximately half the country is Muslim and half is Christian (though many Nigerians follow traditional religions). As reflected by the adjacent map, which depicts the sites of the Nov. 4 attacks as well as the Nigerian states governed by Shariah, the Muslim population predominates in the north while Christians predominate in the south. The Muslim north is parched and devoid of significant resources (agriculture is the north’s economic mainstay). This contrasts sharply with the economic environment in southern Nigeria, an area that includes Lagos, the country’s vibrant commercial capital and the business hub for much of West Africa, and the Niger Delta region, home to about 90 percent of the country’s large crude oil and natural gas sector.
In addition to ethnic tensions, Nigeria has experienced frequent and intense bursts of sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims, especially in the areas where the two religions overlap, like Jos in the northern tip of Plateau state. This struggle pits the powerful Hausa-Fulani from the north, which tends to be Muslim, against a number of smaller local ethnic groups that tend to be Christian. Indeed, Boko Haram has been involved since its inception in several outbursts of inter-communal violence, including the November 2008 violence that saw some 800 people killed in Jos, the July 2009 violence that saw more than 700 people killed in Jos, and the January 2010 violence in Jos that claimed 450 lives.
Following the July 2009 violence, which brought Boko Haram to the world’s attention, Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf and his deputy, Abubakar Shekau, were both killed. Yusuf died in police custody, allegedly during an escape attempt, though his followers have called his death an extrajudicial execution. [continues after the jump]
