Boko Haram Violence Surges Despite Major Arrests

On June 28, security forces in Chad arrested Bahna Fanaye (also known as Mahamat Moustapha), one of the leaders of Boko Haram. Fanaye coordinated weapons trafficking for the organization between its members in Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon. The forces recovered weapons, communications, documents, and 50 SIM cards in Fanaye’s home. In a separate operation, security forces arrested a man described as Boko Haram’s financier. Additionally, 74 suspects have been detained. The arrests were part of a security sweep which took place following a June 15 series of bombings in N’Djamena that killed 27 and injured approximately 100.

On June 29, two explosions in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, killed at least 11 people. Five police officers were among those dead, and others may have been militants who blew themselves up rather than letting themselves be captured.

Boko Haram never officially claimed the attack on June 15 or on June 29, but is suspected of being behind both of them.

The bombings are just the latest in a series of Boko Haram attacks. On July 1, accounts began emerging of a Boko Haram shooting in Monguno, a village in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. The shooting reportedly occurred the previous day. Residents fleeing the militants said that 48 people were killed when Boko Haram arrived, asked all the men to stand in one area, and then opened fire upon them. Last month, 23 people died in an explosion in Monguno during a celebration marking a successful operation against Boko Haram.

Also on July 1, fighters suspected of being members of Boko Haram killed 97 people in the town of Kukuwa, a town near Lake Chad in Borno. The attack occurred in the early evening, and the people killed were praying in mosques.

Despite promises made by the new Nigerian government to immediately crack down on down on Boko Haram, the organization is nowhere near disappearing. Its Shura Council, the decision-making part of the group, is still generally unharmed. It has operations in multiple countries, making it more difficult to dismantle. When it pledged loyalty to the Islamic State, it gained access to foreign trainers, fighters and funding.

Given its high capacity for carrying out rapid-fire attacks, crushing the Boko Haram insurgency becomes both more difficult, and more important. As this terror group continues to kill civilians day after day, public confidence in the government’s ability to combat it will decrease. This may result in Boko Haram finding it easier to expand by retaking territory that it once held but lost.