Tag: Boko Haram

Securing through the Failure to Secure? Civilian Joint Task Force and Counter-Insurgency Operations in North-East Nigeria

Securing through the Failure to Secure? Civilian Joint Task Force and Counter-Insurgency Operations in North-East Nigeria

Posted by | Jun 8, 2026 |

The advent of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in 2012 had a great influence in the evolution of national security in the north-eastern region of Nigeria. This is because many scholars have, at various times, described the region as an ‘unfinished’ region, and of inevitable instability. This article interrogates the role of CJTF in counter-insurgency operations (CIOs) and its influence on the establishment and alliance with the military forces in the north-eastern region. The article succinctly investigates the efforts of CJTF and its CIOs. It also explicates, in clear terms and with relevant cases, CJTF’s role in preventing and fighting insurgency in the region. In particular, it focuses on answering the following questions: Can the current security architecture of CJTF cope with the level of sophistication of the Boko Haram insurgency groups across the region? Under what arrangement will CJTF be able to adequately confront Boko Haram insurgency? What are the challenges affecting the CJTF’s efficiency and effectiveness in this region? The article will also examine how existing CJTF can be strengthened to achieve effective CIOs against insurgency in the north-eastern region of Nigeria.

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The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria’s North-East Region

The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria’s North-East Region

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

Spurred by the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread to the northeast, an environment already devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency, the article looks at its impact on internally displaced persons (IDPs). It analyses data gathered from secondary sources and systematically juxtaposes these with reports and observations of developments in the IDP camps in the region. Major findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on IDPs in the study area concerning their health, particularly by worsening the challenges of access to water, sanitation and hygiene, humanitarian relief, food security, and further escalating insecurity in the region. The findings further revealed that while the government’s preventive measures helped to curb the rapid spread of the virus among the IDPs, the Boko Haram group and its affiliates exploited the lockdown to attack some communities and security forces in the north-east. In the process they killed and displaced more people than the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. This article concludes that the complex challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the already existing humanitarian crises require the synergy of efforts by federal, state, and local governments with the active support of humanitarian actors, particularly international organisations and non-governmental agencies working in the region to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on IDPs. It also underscores the urgent need for additional funding, allocation of land to build new camps to decongest the existing ones, and deployment of additional medical personnel and supplies to cater for the IDP camps in the north-eastern states of Nigeria.

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The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria’s North-East Region

The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria’s North-East Region

Posted by | Dec 9, 2021 |

Spurred by the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread to the northeast, an environment already devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency, the article looks at its impact on internally displaced persons (IDPs). It analyses data gathered from secondary sources and systematically juxtaposes these with reports and observations of developments in the IDP camps in the region. Major findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on IDPs in the study area concerning their health, particularly by worsening the challenges of access to water, sanitation and hygiene, humanitarian relief, food security, and further escalating insecurity in the region. The findings further revealed that while the government’s preventive measures helped to curb the rapid spread of the virus among the IDPs, the Boko Haram group and its affiliates exploited the lockdown to attack some communities and security forces in the north-east. In the process they killed and displaced more people than the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. This article concludes that the complex challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the already existing humanitarian crises require the synergy of efforts by federal, state, and local governments with the active support of humanitarian actors, particularly international organisations and non-governmental agencies working in the region to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on IDPs. It also underscores the urgent need for additional funding, allocation of land to build new camps to decongest the existing ones, and deployment of additional medical personnel and supplies to cater for the IDP camps in the north-eastern states of Nigeria.

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The Boko Haram Insurgency and the Festering Human Insecurity in North-East Nigeria

The Boko Haram Insurgency and the Festering Human Insecurity in North-East Nigeria

Posted by | Sep 28, 2021 |

The study establishes a nexus between Boko Haram insurgency and human insecurity in the north-east of Nigeria. Anchoring on the concept of human security, the study adopt qualitative method of data collection and analysis which relied heavily on extant literature from journal articles, official documents, workshop and seminar papers, newspapers, magazines and internet
sources. The study argues that though human insecurity is a major driver of the Boko Haram insurgency. The lethal and destructive activities of its actors have heightened and widened the spate of human insecurity amid debilitating food insecurity, physical harm, internal displacements and hemorrhaging refugee syndrome. The study concludes that military combat alone cannot tame the Boko Haram insurgency and thus recommends that, the government should adopt credible measures to address the human security challenges as an effective and functional counter-insurgency strategy.

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Child Of Necessity: (AB)Uses Of T he Civilian Joint Task Force In Borno State, Nigeria

Child Of Necessity: (AB)Uses Of T he Civilian Joint Task Force In Borno State, Nigeria

Posted by | Apr 7, 2019 |

Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have become key actors in the provision of security and safety in communities in Africa. One of the NSAGs created to provide safety and security in the war-ravaged North Eastern Nigeria is the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF). This paper critical examines uses and abuses of the NSAG in Borno State. Based on data collected through online and print newspapers, interviews and other secondary sources, the study shows that the formation of the CJTF in Borno State has helped to curtail military attacks on innocent civilians and also assisted in decimating Boko Haram. However, activities of the group since its creation in 2013 have been accompanied with human rights abuses of residents, use of position as members of CJTF to witch-hunt opponents, serving as informants to Boko Haram and subject to elites manipulation especially politicians and military. The study also held that rebuilding Borno State and entire Northeastern Nigeria where Boko Haram insurgency has been on for almost a decade now should incorporate demobilisation and reintegration of members of CJTF into normal life to prevent the possibility of the group developing into new security threat after Boko Haram.

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