Boko Haram and its two decades of terrorism in the Sahel

Recognized by the Jamaat Al-sunna Lil Dawa Wal Jihad group, the Boko Haram movement, following in the footsteps of its predecessors, has been sowing the seeds of terrorism in the Sahel for two decades. A detailed analysis of the terrorist acts perpetrated over the last twenty years reveals just how much. Founded in 2002 in Maïduguri, Nigeria, Boko Haram derives from book = book and haram = forbidden. In 2009, after the death of its founder, it launched a jihad in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. His successor, Abubaka Shekau, recruited fighters, procured weapons and left the stronghold to launch a series of terrorist attacks around Lake Chad. By advocating radical Islam, Boko Haram became a transnational movement in 2015. With the idea of creating an Islamic caliphate around Lake Chad, terrorist actions became the hallmark of the movement with the birth of the dissident branch Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in 2016, which would carry out some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Boko Haram's history until 2023.