A rare positive note as Nigeria spirals into a state of lawlessness is the unintended return to the front burner of longstanding issues around governance at the subnational level. Until now, such issues have bubbled under the surface, receiving fleeting attention only when the country’s perennial crisis threatens to boil over, only to subside as soon as a temporary fix is found. Penultimate week, after still unidentified assailants opened fire on an Abuja-Kaduna train, killing eight passengers and kidnapping tens of others for ransom, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, emerging from a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, threatened to do whatever it takes to protect lives and property across the state, including “importing mercenaries from outside the country to do it.”

This update represents violence in Nigeria and related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger from January 2 to January 8, 2021.

Despite military officials seizing power from the transitional government one year ago, Sudanese citizens continue to mobilize for a democratic future. 

This update represents violence in Nigeria and related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger from December 12 to December 18, 2020.

This update represents violence in Nigeria and related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger from May 23 to 29, 2020.

Nigerian Major General Ibrahim Manu Yusuf, commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) fighting the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin, announced that 109 Boko Haram fighters and their prisoners had defected in Cameroon.