The growing hideous attacks by the extremist sect, Boko Haram has forced the international community to mobilise to salvage the situation.

From 2009 when Boko Haram militants moved from their Sharia Law stances into a “Salafist-jihadi” to 2014 when the radical group, based in north-eastern Nigeria went berserk, over 5,000 civilians are said to have been killed by its followers. Their suspected links to al-Qaeda and the ISIL has only made matters worse and on the ground they have sought to wield power through brutal killings and the rapid spread of their activities to countries that are neighbours to Nigeria has heightened the scare, making it clear that President Paul Biya’s call for an international coalition against the extremists is the only way forward.
Reportedly founded in 2002 with an obscure agenda, Boko Haram increasingly became radicalised until 2009 when a violent uprising they instigated opened the eyes of many to the perilous ambitions of the sect. During the first half of last year alone, an estimated 2,000 civilians were killed by the group with over 500 men, women and children kidnapped including 276 school girls in Chibock in April 2014.

Prior to international outcry against the sect last year, they already showed their brutish face in 2011 with suicide bombings on police buildings as well as the United Nations office in Abuja. The attack on the UN Office led to 11 UN staff members and 12 others killed, with more than 100 injured. The imposing of a State of Emergency by the Nigerian government on localities hard-hit by the sect in 2012 never stopped the militants from taking hold of swathes of territory in Nigeria and attempting to do same in neighbouring countries.
With their name roughly translated as “Western education is forbidden”  or “Western influence is a sin” and the official meaning they gave as “People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Propaganda and Jihad” many have wrongly linked their preaching to Islam, yet the spate of killings orchestrated by the movement has not spared Muslims either. Mosques and churches have suffered the same inhuman treatment in the hands of the militants.
Of late, they have not only been contented with their dominance in parts of Nigeria but are evidently nursing sub-regional and international ambitions, stating openly, to go by some video broadcast not independently identified, that they are bent on spreading their tentacles far and wide. Asymmetric attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger as well as kidnappings and lootings in markets and banks have affected the entire sub-region and created fears of a growing monster that, if not stemmed now, might be too late. Addressing the International Organisation of the Francophonie in Dakar, Senegal last November 2014, President Paul Biya pointed out that terrorism in the likes of what the Boko Haram sect has been inflicting on the affected populations is a global threat that requires global mobilisation. Thus, the internal and external factors which have favoured the dangerous spread of the sect must be tackled as regional leaders meet in Yaounde today Monday 16 February 2015. Time is certainly running out for any group of individuals to be given such a blank cheque as the jihadists have had so far and the international support being promised to countries that have formed the epicentre of the activities of the sect should be most welcome.