An investigation of the experiences of non-Muslim communities of Southern Borno under the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno States of Nigeria

Abstract

The investigation on the experiences of non-Muslim communities of Southern Borno in the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the Boko Haram insurgency is inevitable, considering the dire humanitarian situation that has since prevailed. The openly orchestrated mass atrocities against non-Muslim Nigerians are intended to instil maximum fear, as demonstrated by the gory, if not macabre crimes against humanity seen from live online footage of mutilation of corpses, enslavements, and the continuing widespread looting. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to explore, describe and analyse the Boko Haram insurgency in North-Eastern Nigeria against non-Muslim communities, as well as implications of the humanitarian crisis this unprecedented insurgency has created A predominantly exploratory and descriptive qualitative research design approach was adopted in this study, with a total of 80 participants who were sampled through the snowball method among the indigenous Kibaku-speaking ethnic group in Southern Borno State, North-Eastern Nigeria. Of these, 46 participated in semi-structured interviews, while 34 were involved in seven focus group discussions. In both these data collection initiatives, the purpose was to obtain the common and shared (reported and unreported) experiences of the victims of the insurgency. All the collected data was manually transcribed and coded by means of thematic analysis. The findings generated five thematically coherent perspectives and associated categories, all of which are in response to the research problem and research questions. Overall, these themes reveal an orchestrated ethno-religious dilemma in which non-Muslims in Borno State are the lethargic denigrated victims whose rights and dignity as human beings have been brutalised in the most odious and barbaric ways ever imagined. The study recommends, among others, that the international community should decidedly support the Nigerian government’s efforts to completely obliterate the Boko Haram menace and its threat to regional peace and stability.