•How members
are recruited
Female members of the sect are almost as likely as men to be deployed as fighters in the Northeast challenging a widespread perception that these women are mainly used as cooks, sex slaves and suicide bombers, researchers said yesterday.
While men in the Islamist group dominate in leadership and training roles, women may outnumber them in other senior roles, such as recruiters and intelligence operatives, according to a report based on interviews with 119 former Boko Haram members.
Four in 10 female respondents said they served as soldiers – compared with 45 percent of men – while both sexes carried out domestic tasks like cooking and cleaning, the report found.
“Recruiters are adapting to the tightening security environment,” said Mahdi Abdile, director of research at Finn Church Aid and co-author of the study, adding that women and girls are increasingly being targeted for recruitment.
“The intelligence community is on the lookout for young men, so it is easier for women to navigate past security barriers and penetrate communities,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than two million in a seven-year insurgency to carve out an Islamist caliphate, and it still launches attacks despite having been driven out of much of the territory it held in 2014.
The Islamists have stepped up suicide bombings carried out by children in recent years, many of them carried out by girls, according to the U.N. children’s agency (UNICEF).
While there has been a global focus on these female suicide bombers, women in Boko Haram have long been involved in planning logistics, planting mines and bombs, and fighting as soldiers, said Vincent Foucher of the International Crisis Group (ICG).
The report also found that six in 10 of the former militants – who are currently undergoing rehabilitation programmes – were introduced to Boko Haram by friends and relatives, while only a quarter learned about the group at mosques or Islamic schools.
“Mosques and madrasas (Islamic schools) used to be the place to get new recruits … now they are under the spotlight,” said Abdile, adding that this shift in strategy represented a challenge for anti-terror and radicalisation efforts in Nigeria.
Religious beliefs, poverty, a lack of education and work, and opportunities offered by Boko Haram were cited by the former militants as the main reasons for joining the Islamist group.
Boko Haram has lured young entrepreneurs and business owners to join them by providing or promising capital and loans to boost their businesses, Mercy Corps said in April.
The report was carried out by Finn Church Aid, The International Dialogue Centre, The Network of Religious and Traditional Peacemakers and the Citizen Research Centre.
Within the organisation, both men and women provided domestic support services, with the the research sample showing that women even surpassed their male counterparts as recruiters (12 and seven) and as intelligence operatives (eight and six).
“This large role of women in Boko Haram was one of the most surprising results we got. For example, in Al Shabaab, women basically do not have an active role at all,” said Mahdi Abdile, Director of Research at FCA and at the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, and the co-author of the study.
Contrary to common misconceptions, only 27% of respondents admitted to being introduced into the sect at mosques, with over 60% saying that family, friends and acquaintances had connected them to the terrorist group.
“In the pre-9/11 world, mosques and madrasas used to be the place to get new recruits. Today that has changed”, Abdile said.
“The results of this study highlight the fact that recruiters are adaptive to the tightening security environment, and more than ever before, that women and young girls are increasingly being targeted for recruitment,” she said.
The study has also revealed the reasons behind civilians wanting to join the organisation.
At least 57% of former Boko Haram fighters identified the desire for revenge as having a strong influence on their decision to join, or being the only reason for it, with 43% of former fighters indicating that religion had a strong influence on their decision to join the group.
At least 23.5% of Boko Haram respondents said they had joined Boko Haram to be respected and feared, while a further 17% stated a need to belong.
“Former fighters described a feeling of fear in Boko Haram when being a member and after leaving the group. This fear should be countered by reintegrating former Boko Haram fighters into society, and by involving local communities in helping individuals to feel like a part of a strong community,” the study concluded.
‘Why they join sect’
A new study indicates that the desire for revenge against the military is a leading reason that people join Boko Haram’s Islamic extremist group.
Nearly 60 per cent of 119 former Boko Haram fighters interviewed in Nigerian rehabilitation camps cited revenge against the military as having a strong, or being the only, influence in their recruitment.
The study published yesterday was conducted by Helsinki-based Finn Church Aid and The Network for Religious Peacemakers and South Africa’s Vibrand Research.
Separately, Amnesty International has reported some 7,000 people, including babies, have died in military detention linked to the insurgency.
President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to halt military abuses.