What You Need to Know
Nigeria, a nation marked by ethnic and linguistic diversity, faces significant challenges from various armed groups, including Boko Haram. These groups exploit poverty and social divisions, contributing to widespread violence. The Nigerian government struggles to combat these threats due to the complexity of the issues involved, including economic and political factors.
Africa. The Federal Republic of Nigeria—ethnically and linguistically diverse and Africa’s strongest economy—has witnessed a wide spread of armed, “jihadist,” and “separatist” groups, including Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, the Lakurawa group, and Ansar al-Muslimin fi Bilad al-Sudan (Ansaru), alongside other groups described as “bandits.”
These groups have contributed to the spread of violence in the country and have taken advantage of poverty, unemployment, and conflicts over resources such as land and water, in addition to ethnic and religious divisions between the country’s North and South.
Nigerian authorities face major challenges in combating these groups due to the country’s vast size, the multiplicity of security agencies, and the overlap of economic, social, and political factors that fuel armed gangs.
Below are the most prominent armed groups operating across Nigeria:
Boko Haram
Boko Haram is an armed Islamist group that emerged in 2002 under the leadership of Mohammed Yusuf in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. Its common name, “Boko Haram,” is derived from the Hausa dialect and means “Western education is forbidden.” However, the group rejects this label—coined by the media and local residents—and identifies itself as “Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad” (People of the Sunnah Group for Preaching and Jihad).
According to sources, Boko Haram embraces an ideology hostile to Westernization, viewing Western influence as the main cause of corruption and social injustice in Nigeria, and it seeks to impose Islamic sharia as an alternative to the modern state.
In its early stages, the movement focused on religious preaching and criticizing state institutions and Western education, attracting followers among poor youth.
The group benefited from severe economic inequality, weak public services, and widespread corruption to present itself as a religious and social reform movement. However, its rhetoric soon shifted toward rejecting the state and its security and educational institutions.
The year 2009 marked a pivotal turning point in the group’s history, when armed clashes erupted between it and Nigerian security forces following accusations of excessive force against its members.
The group launched attacks on police stations and government facilities, prompting the army to intervene. The military operation resulted in the death of more than 700 Boko Haram members, the destruction of its main headquarters, and the arrest of its founder and a number of its leaders.
A few days later, the founder and several of his associates were killed while in police custody, which angered the group’s followers and contributed to its shift into a more violent phase.
Boko Haram resurfaced in 2010 under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, who vowed to avenge the killing of the group’s leaders. From then on, it launched assassination campaigns and large-scale attacks targeting police and army personnel, as well as government officials and public institutions.
One of the most notable operations of that phase was the attack on Bauchi prison in September 2010, which led to the release of more than 700 inmates, including dozens of the group’s members.
The following years saw a major escalation in violence, as the attacks expanded to include states in northern, eastern, and central Nigeria. The group targeted churches, schools, and mosques whose imams opposed its ideology, as well as markets and civilian gatherings.
Among the most serious attacks carried out by the group was the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, in August 2011, which killed 23 people, including 11 UN staff members, and injured more than 80 others.
In January 2012, the group carried out a large-scale attack in the northern city of Kano, targeting police stations, security headquarters, and government buildings through coordinated bombings and gunfire.
The attack killed more than 185 people—most of them security personnel and civilians—and wounded dozens more, causing widespread security paralysis across the city.
As military campaigns against it continued, Boko Haram began expanding its activity beyond Nigeria’s borders and, from 2013 onward, conducted operations in Cameroon and neighboring countries.
That same year, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan officially designated Boko Haram a “terrorist organization” and banned it by law.
Despite extensive military campaigns, the group managed in 2014 to seize control of large rural areas in the country’s northeast and declared the establishment of an “Islamic state” in the territories under its control.
In March 2015, Boko Haram announced its pledge of allegiance to ISIS in Iraq and Syria and adopted the name “Islamic State West Africa Province.” However, according to sources, this step led in 2016 to a sharp internal split, due to disputes over Abubakar Shekau’s leadership and his violent methods—especially the indiscriminate targeting of Muslim civilians.
ISIS recognized a faction led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi under the name “Islamic State West Africa Province,” while Shekau and his faction kept the group’s original name, “Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad.”
Despite the heavy losses the group suffered as a result of joint military operations by Nigeria and neighboring countries since 2015, its activity did not cease entirely. Factions that emerged from it resumed violent attacks, especially in 2018, amid continued security instability in the Lake Chad region.
Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)
ISWAP is an armed faction that split from Boko Haram after the group pledged allegiance to ISIS in March 2015. Following that pledge, Boko Haram adopted the name “West Africa Province,” leading to major changes in its leadership structure and strategic objectives.
However, this move triggered a sharp internal split in 2016 due to disputes over Shekau’s leadership and his violent methods—especially the indiscriminate targeting of Muslim civilians.
As a result, ISIS recognized a faction led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi under the name Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), while Shekau and his faction kept the group’s original name, “Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad.”
ISWAP is based in rural areas of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, and its fighters are estimated to number between 3,500 and 5,000. Since the split, the group has shown notable development in internal organization and military capabilities compared with Shekau’s faction.
ISWAP has relied on advanced tactics, including vehicle-borne explosive attacks and the use of drones for reconnaissance to monitor army movements and conduct precise ambushes.
The faction also received support from ISIS in equipment, media, and propaganda, which—according to sources—helped it significantly enhance its operational and media capabilities.
Since its establishment, ISWAP has carried out a series of high-profile attacks in northeastern Nigeria. In February and March 2018, it kidnapped hundreds of students and staff from some schools and rural towns around Maiduguri, and launched expanded attacks in the area that killed dozens.
In September of the same year, the group managed to seize control of a town in Borno State after storming a military base. In November, ISWAP carried out a violent attack on a military base in the village of Metele, during which more than 100 soldiers were killed.
The following year, ISWAP continued its attacks: in May it attacked a military base in the town of Gubio north of Maiduguri, killing several soldiers. Then in June, it attacked two military bases in the towns of Marte and Kerenowa and stole weapons, forcing the army to retreat in the face of ISWAP fighters.
ISWAP has been listed on international terrorism designations due to its close ties to ISIS and its violent activities in Nigeria and neighboring countries.
In February 2020, the UN Security Council sanctions committee added ISWAP to the sanctions list related to ISIS and al-Qaeda, citing its links to ISIS and its involvement in financing, planning, carrying out, or facilitating “terrorist activities,” as well as supplying weapons and recruiting fighters.
Ansar al-Muslimin fi Bilad al-Sudan (Ansaru)
The group known as “Ansaru” was founded in January 2012 following Boko Haram’s attack on the 20th of that month in the city of Kano, which killed at least 180 people, most of them Muslims.
The group’s popularity increased on June 2, 2012, when its leader, Abu Osama al-Ansari, appeared in a video announcing its establishment and outlining its beliefs.
Since its emergence, the group has claimed responsibility for various acts described as “terrorist,” such as an armed attack on a detention center, an ambush targeting Nigerian soldiers, and the kidnapping of foreign expatriates.
The group is believed to have been founded by former Boko Haram leaders who had been aligned with the leadership style of the group’s spiritual head, Abubakar Shekau, before they split off.
Although relations between the two groups remain uncertain, some analysts believe “Ansaru” may have emerged from a faction within Boko Haram that specifically sought to target foreign interests.
The group was added to the UN Security Council sanctions list on June 26, 2014, as an entity linked to al-Qaeda.
By early 2019, “Ansaru” was said to have become more dangerous than Boko Haram and to have taken control of a vast area comparable in size to Belgium.
In August 2025, Nigerian authorities arrested two “Ansaru” leaders, Mahmoud Mohammed Osman and Mahmoud al-Nijiri.
Nigeria accuses the group of participating in the 2022 attack on Kogi prison, which resulted in the escape of dozens of Boko Haram inmate members.
The Lakurawa group
Lakurawa is an armed group that emerged in northwestern Nigeria, specifically in Sokoto and Kebbi states, near the border with the Republic of Niger. It was officially announced in November 2024, but it had already existed since 2016, when local leaders brought it in to protect villages from armed bandits.
At first, residents welcomed the group and viewed it as a protective force, but it soon turned into an armed organization that used violence against civilians and imposed taxes on local communities.
The group’s members are mainly herders from Mali. They speak Arabic and Fulfulde (Fula/Fulani), settled in border communities, and married local women.
The group established bases in the Gudu and Tangaza areas and eventually began threatening even the local leaders who had supported it at the outset. It operates along the Nigeria–Niger border and imposes its own interpretation of Islamic sharia on the villages it controls, including banning music, requiring women to wear the niqab, and enforcing corporal punishment on those who violate its rules.
The group has carried out violent attacks on villages, including killings, kidnappings, and the burning of homes, forcing thousands of residents to flee to safer areas. According to sources, by November 2025 around 250 people had been killed as a result of its attacks.
The Nigerian government designated Lakurawa a terrorist organization in January 2025, but it has struggled to eliminate the group due to the lack of a clear centralized leadership and the group’s control over hard-to-reach areas along the border, as well as its influence over local communities and its exploitation of border insecurity in the African Sahel.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Movement
The “Indigenous People of Biafra” is a “separatist” movement made up of a number of factions and affiliated groups. It was founded in 2012 by Nnamdi Kanu with the aim of reviving the “Republic of Biafra,” which briefly seceded (1967–1970) before collapsing after a brutal civil war. The Nigerian federal government has designated it a terrorist group since 2017.
The movement’s strength lies in the fact that it emerged out of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), which pursues peaceful means to achieve its separatist goals.
The movement operates in the southeastern region dominated by the Igbo ethnic group and forms alliances with other separatist movements, including the armed “Niger Delta Avengers,” active in the far south—an area inhabited by more than 40 ethnic groups, including the Ijaw, Edo, and Urhobo.
IPOB’s activities escalated after President Muhammadu Buhari won the March 2015 elections. Through “Radio Biafra,” one of its media arms, it intensified messages of hatred and incitement against the new government. Its leader, Kanu, stated that it would adopt violence as a tool to achieve its separatist aims, calling on the Igbo diaspora to assist it with weapons.
The movement shares a number of features with the former “Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta” (MEND). Both movements operate in a similar way: each provides criminals with an opportunity to disguise their criminal activities by embedding themselves in a cause framed as social and political, allowing them to justify their actions under the umbrella of a movement with broad popular support.
The Indigenous People of Biafra movement offers participants a way to rationalize illegal activities by affiliating with a politically active movement, making it an attractive vehicle for criminals who exploit that association to pursue their own goals.
In 2020, the movement established an armed wing known as the “Eastern Security Network,” which has been accused of involvement in the killing of civilians and security personnel, as well as attacks on government infrastructure and property.
In 2022, the movement carried out 40 attacks that resulted in 57 deaths and 16 injuries in southeastern Nigeria. These figures show a significant increase compared with 2021, which saw 26 attacks and 34 fatalities.
In May 2022, the British government designated the movement a terrorist organization and barred its members from applying for asylum in the United Kingdom.
In 2021, the then-leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested, although a Nigerian court ordered his release in October 2022 after ruling that his arrest in Kenya and rendition to Nigeria had been unlawful.
Kanu’s arrest and detention led to a breakdown in leadership and internal divisions within the movement, significantly affecting its cohesion and political objectives. The ensuing struggle for leadership produced competing factions, with divergent internal forces battling for control and influence.
Nigeria has a long history of ethnic and religious tensions, which have been exacerbated by economic disparities and political instability. The emergence of armed groups like Boko Haram reflects deeper societal issues, including corruption and inadequate governance. Since its formation in 2002, Boko Haram has evolved from a religious movement into a violent insurgency, significantly impacting Nigeria’s security landscape.
