Boko Haram affected areas

While the current crisis in the Lake Chad region is often framed by the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram, other factors have converged and exacerbated the crisis.

The MNJTF, headquarter in N’Damena, Chad, is a combined multinational formation, comprising units, mostly military, from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Authorities say they’re the latest among hundreds of the militant Islamists who have been defecting since May, when the group's leader was killed. Cameroon plans to deport the former fighters as the influx has overwhelmed rehabilitation centers along the border.

Cameroonian authorities said they are overwhelmed by the number of militants fleeing the extremist group Boko Haram. The National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, or the DDR, a center set up by the government, hosts about 750 former militants in Meri, a town on the northern border with Nigeria.

The toll, given by (UNDP) in a new study on the war and its impact on livelihoods, is 10 times higher than previous estimates of about 35,000 based only on those killed in fighting in Nigeria since the conflict's start 12 years ago. 

Jihadists have killed 35 people, including five troops and 15 militiamen, in two attacks in Nigeria’s troubled northern Borno state. … Islamic State-aligned militants have intensified attacks on army camps in recent weeks as part of a decade-long insurgency that has killed 36,000 people and forced more than two million to flee their homes.

Cameroon’s military on Tuesday said it deployed troops to its northern border with Nigeria after a series of attacks authorities say were carried out the terrorist group Boko Haram.

In 2016, Nigeria launched a program to help Boko Haram defectors reintegrate into civilian life. Rare interviews with the “deradicalisation” facility’s graduates reveal some encouraging signs but also troubling patterns that – if not addressed – could endanger the initiative’s future.

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Boko Haram's claim of responsibility for a recent kidnapping of more than 300 students in Nigeria's northwestern state of Katsina signals that the militant group is expanding its terror activities beyond its traditional stronghold in the West African country's northeast, experts warn.  

A man identifying himself as the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram said on Tuesday the Islamist group was behind the abduction of more than 300 schoolboys, as anxious parents begged the government to secure their release. … The claims in the audio tape, if true, could mark a widening influence of jihadist groups operating in northeastern Nigeria, political analysts said.