Bloody harvest: 2018 is most violent year of Boko Haram
Tuesday 11/December/2018 - 03:03 PM
Ayat Ezz
The Nigerian Boko Haram group has intensified its terrorist attacks in the
current period, the latest of which was the armed attack launched by the group
on Sunday at a military base in northeastern Nigeria, killing two soldiers, AFP
reported.
The terrorist group launched two double attacks early Saturday night in a
village in the state of Borno.
During this year, the group has adopted a number of vicious terrorist attacks
that have not been carried out in the past, so 2018 is the most dangerous year
in the bloody history of Boko Haram, according to the local newspapers of
Nigeria and the Somali newspaper “New Somalia”.
Kalla Moutari, Niger's defense minister, expressed his fear that Boko Haram
group would launch attacks against his country's troops in early 2019 because
of the brutality of the group.
The Minister confirmed that the terrorist group had acquired new equipment and
weapons during the past period and had resumed its terrorist activity.
Field control
In August 2018, the Nigerian army suffered heavy losses due to the terrorist
attacks of the group. These attacks resulted in the army losing control of the
whole area. On August 8, the movement launched a major attack on the Chad Lake
region at a military base near the village of Garonada, killing some 17
soldiers.
Change strategy
According to a statistics published by the Global Center for Countering
Extremism in the first months of 2018, Boko Haram has adopted a new, more
violent terrorist style than other terrorist groups, such as the abduction of
women and children as human shields. In July 2014, a woman carried out her
first bombing in Nigeria, according to the center's statistics.
According to the study, the movement of Boko Haram since 2017 until 2018
launched about 430 terrorist attacks, mostly carried out by nearly 244 women
and the rest of the elements of the group.
According to the study, the terrorist group is based on three extremist
ideological pillars during the last three years. The three pillars are
preventing to deal with state institutions, with anyone who supports the state,
even if it is a cleric, preventing to deal with any Western institution and
isolating people from nearby cities by going to the highlands.
For his part, Mohamed Ezzeddine, researcher specializing in African affairs,
said that Boko Haram terrorist group has become more violent since half of its
elements announced their loyalty to Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In a special statement to the Reference, Ezzeddin stressed that the terrorist
group will become more violent in the coming period, because of the weapons it
acquired from the intensive attacks it launched on the Nigerian army.
