August–December 2010
Sporadic attacks across the country
Boko Haram is an extremist militant group whose name translates as “western education is forbidden”. Active since 2002, it is fighting to carve out an Islamic state from ethnically and religiously divided Nigeria. Their attacks have been small-scale until autumn 2010, when fighters free 700 inmates from a prison in Bauchi and attack a mosque in Maiduguri, frequented by Muslims opposing the insurgent group’s ideology of violence.