Analysts at Africa Security Analysis warn that unless Nigeria and its neighbours urgently reinforce their military coordination and stabilize rural areas, insurgents will continue to gain ground. Nov 28, 2025 · Nigeria is currently grappling with a spate of mass abductions. But the vast country - bigger than France and Germany combined - also faces many other security challenges. Boko Haram is a Nigeria-based terror group that seeks to rid the country of Western and secular institutions and to resuscitate the Kanem-Bornu caliphate that once ruled over modern-day Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon. The group was founded by a Salafist cleric named Mohammed Yusuf in 2002. Yusuf opened the Ibn Taymiyyah Masjid mosque in Maiduguri and ...See full list on counterextremism.comIn March 2015, Boko Haram former leader Abubakar Shekau announced the Nigerian terror group’s allegiance to ISIS. Shortly after, ISIS’s now-deceased spokesperson Abu Mohammad al-Adnani released an audio message directing individuals who could not enter Iraq or Syria to travel to West Africa. There is little evidence to suggest that Adani’s message ...See full list on counterextremism.comKala Kato is an Islamic fundamentalist movement with a following in Nigeria. It is considered a Quranist movement: Kala Kato followers rely exclusively on the Quran and reject the religious authority of the Hadith (a series of books describing the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). The movement’s reasoning for dismissing the Hadith...See full list on counterextremism.comIzala is an anti-Sufi, Salafist organization that was founded by Sheikh Ismaila Idris in 1978 in the central Nigerian city Jos. The group is known to exploit street violence and organize mass protests. Abubakar Mujahid and IMN founder Malam Ibrahim al-Zakzaky are reported to be an influential grass roots forc...See full list on counterextremism.comOn November 26, 2022, Nigeria designated armed groups in northern areas as terrorist organizations. The groups, which have carried out hundreds of abductions and killings in northern areas, have significantly strained Nigeria’s security services. The decision allows authorities to charge suspected bandits for terrorism-related offenses. Jan 29, 2026 · The strikes thrust Nigeria’s long-running sectarian bloodshed into the global spotlight – and revived claims that a “Christian genocide” is unfolding in Africa’s most populous country.