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Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines the impact of anti-Boko Haram measures on civilian populations’ livelihood and access to basic services in Cameroon. Its material was produced as part of an ongoing ethnographic research of Boko Haram and its derivative dynamics in the Lake Chad Basin since 2013.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2009, civilian populations in the Lake Chad Basin have suffered abuses by Boko Haram, a jihadist group considered the deadliest movement in the world according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s 2015 Global Terrorism Index. In Cameroon, this group operates through bloody raids on villages, suicide bombings, improvised explosive mines, hostage-taking, and attacks on army posts. Due to intensive media demonization and negative labeling of Boko Haram, the literature tends to focus on the violence and horror of its acts, to the detriment of the abuses of the Cameroonian military and the negative consequences of counterinsurgency practices on local populations.

This presentation aims to fill this research gap and examine the impact of anti-Boko Haram measures on civilian populations’ livelihood and access to basic services in Cameroon. Concretely, it will focus on the effects of military and administrative measures such as restrictions on the mobility of people and goods, the construction of a border trench, the ban of some economic activities, the multiplication of checkpoints, the administrative closure of markets, and the closure of the border with Nigeria.

The material for this presentation was produced as part of an ongoing ethnographic research of Boko Haram and its derivative dynamics in the Lake Chad Basin since 2013, during which interviews were conducted with administrative authorities, traditional leaders, army officers, local service officials (agriculture, livestock, fisheries, social affairs), women and youth. The presentation will also be based on direct observations and unclassified security and administrative archival documents.