United Nations: Make Boko Haram a Security Priority

Since its creation in 2001, Boko Haram has been responsible for countless bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings in the name of their extremist ideologies¹.

The kidnapping of almost 300 teenage girls in Nigeria thrust the group and their crimes onto the international stage in 2014. The US State Department designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization the year before².

Boko Haram is strongly against Western culture and especially Western education. To advance their viewpoints, they resort to violence and intimidation to stop people from receiving a non-Islamic education³. While their goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in place of Nigeria's current democracy is primarily a local aim, this group is not just Nigeria's problem⁴.

Countries in the region face a serious humanitarian crisis. Millions of people are facing food shortages and in need of assistance. Meanwhile, ongoing violence from Boko Haram is destroying lives, livestock, foodstuffs and economic development⁵.

As the protectors of international peace and security, the United Nations Security Council has a duty to aid Nigeria in stopping Boko Haram's terrorist activities.

In 2017, by unanimously adopting resolution 2349 (2017), the Council strongly condemned all terrorist attacks, violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses by Boko Haram and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) in the region, including killings, abductions, child, early and forced marriage, rape, sexual slavery and the increasing use of girls as suicide bombers⁶.

The UN claimed that those responsible should be held to account and brought to justice, yet Boko Haram is still at large in neighboring Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

No one should be threatened with violence for pursuing an education.

Sign the petition and help us call on the United Nations Security Council to use every tool within their power, including the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security, to support Nigeria so Boko Haram can be a thing of the past.

More on this issue:

1. Council on Foreign Relations Global Conflict Tracker (4 April 2022), "Boko Haram in Nigeria."
2. Counter Terrorism Guide, "Boko Haram."
3. Madiha Afzal, Foreign Policy at Brookings (April 2020), "From "Western Education Is Forbidden" To The World's Deadliest Terrorist Group Education And Boko Haram In Nigeria."
4. Alex Thurston, Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings (July 2016), "‘The disease is unbelief’: Boko Haram’s religious and political worldview."
5. United Nations Security Council (12 January 2017), "Boko Haram Still Threatens Civilians in Lake Chad Basin, Officials Warn Security Council, Urging United Front to Repair Material, Social Damage."
6. United Nations Security Council (31 March 2017), "Security Council Strongly Condemns Terrorist Attacks, Other Violations in Lake Chad Basin Region, Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2349."