The militant group has bombed schools, churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders alike.
This week, the group kidnapped at least 185 women and children and killed 32 in a raid on the village of Gumsuri in northeastern Nigeria. Militants shot down men and threw petrol bombs before herding women and children together and taking them away in trucks, a local government official said. One survivor reported militants had “destroyed almost half the village.”
In April, gunmen abducted more than 200 girls in the town of Chibok, a short distance south of Gumsuri. After a fierce gunbattle with soldiers, the militants herded the girls out of bed and onto buses, and sped off. Only a few dozen of the girls have escaped.
What exactly is Boko Haram, and why has it turned into a Nigerian synonym for fear and bloodshed?
What does ‘Boko Haram’ mean?
The name translates to “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language.
–
What other attacks has the group conducted?
In April, a massive explosion ripped through a bus station in the Nigerian capital, killing at least 71 people. In a video, Shekau said the group was behind the attack.
In November, the group abducted dozens of Christian women, most of whom were later rescued by the military. Some were pregnant or had children, and others had been forcibly converted to Islam and married off to their kidnappers.
In 2011, a Boko Haram suicide attack on the United Nations building in Abuja killed at least 25 people.
Boko Haram: The essence of terror
