Paper short abstract:

The Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin has displaced more than 2 million people and led to large-scale loss of life. This paper explores the social impacts of the insurgency and the responses of the region's diverse population.

Paper long abstract:

The Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria and the wider Lake Chad basin has generated one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world today. More than 2 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands, or perhaps in excess of a hundred thousand, have been killed in the conflict since 2009. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork across a wide area of north-east Nigeria and in border areas of Niger and Cameroon, carried out from 2012 to 2016. It explores the social impacts of the crisis among different sections of the population and 'life under Boko Haram' in areas that were for some time controlled by the insurgents. It looks at the local responses of farmers, pastoralists, traders, and educational institutions to the crisis. The insurgency has been fought in one of the most ethno-linguistically diverse parts of Africa and among a religiously plural population that has a Muslim majority and substantial Christian minority. It has had varied but probably long-term impacts on inter-ethnic, inter-faith and gender relations in the region. The level of recruitment into Boko Haram varied between communities, but as armed resistance increased the conflict ramified and the violence became more extreme. While much writing on Boko Haram focuses on the movement's ideology and the general pattern of violence, this paper seeks to analyse the insurgency through the lens of local populations. The paper concludes by analysing reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts of the Nigerian state and donors.