History of Boko Haram

Since 2009, Nigeria has faced a determined and deadly Islamist fundamentalist insurgency. The Islamist group known as Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad, better known by its nickname “Boko Haram,” was founded in 1995 as a Sunni Salafist organization preaching Islam and providing services to the poor, to widows and to vagrant children (almajiris). The group, then known as the Sahaba, was led by a Muslim cleric, Malam Lawan Abubakar. In 2002, Malam Lawan relocated from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia for further studies at the University of Medina. ¹