Summary: Boko Haram is increasingly targeting government and secular schools in Nigeria's Muslim-majority north east, killing large numbers of students and teachers. This campaign may soon be widened to include Islamic schools that eschew their violent jihadi ideology.
Boko Haram has recently been returning to the mission implied by its name: "Boko Haram" means "secular education is sinful" in Hausa, and over the past weeks Nigeria's foremost violent jihadi organisation has been carrying out deadly attacks on non-Islamic schools. In the most recent incident yesterday in Yobe state, thirty people were killed as a school dormitory was set alight as the students slept. Earlier this week in bordering Borno state, suspected Boko Haram militants gunned down a headmaster and his entire family at their home.
These are but the latest in a string of attacks. Since the beginning of 2012, Boko Haram has attacked twelve schools in and around Maiduguri (capital of Borno state) alone. It is not by coincidence that Boko Haram's school attacks have been concentrated in Nigeria's Muslim-majority north east, and especially in the three states placed under a state of emergency earlier this year. Maiduguri itself is seen as the spiritual home of Boko Haram, as well as probably its most important base of operations. Not only does Boko Haram object to the 'corruption' of Muslim children by the secular form of education provided by government schools, but Boko Haram's sources have specifically linked their attacks against these to alleged Nigerian security forces' abuses against Qur'an schools in the region.
Many of these Islamic schools are suspected by government officials of being used as recruitment and training grounds by Boko Haram, and a large number of clerics associated with them have been arrested for having terrorist links since the state of emergency was declared. In March last year, purported Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa justified an attack on a government school thusly: “Certainly, if Quranic education will not be allowed to continue, then secular and Western education will not continue also.” In June this year, he claimed that Nigerian soldiers had beaten Qur'an school students with canes, and declared that "When you attack Koran schools, you totally destroy Western schools."
Although the origin of this 'justification' well before the state of emergency and the security crackdown shows just how contrived it is, Boko Haram's tactic of attacking secular schools is succeeding in at least one sense: an estimated ten thousand students across Nigeria's north east have been forced out of government schools since this violence started. In response to Saturday's attack, the Governor of Yobe state took the extraordinary step of closing all secondary schools in the state (though primary schools have also been targeted). This may not just be Boko Haram's aim for 'theological' reasons -the intention may also be to force all but the Qur'an schools to close, driving more and more students into Boko Haram's recruiting grounds. Of course not all Qur'an schools are linked to violent jihadi organisations, and so if Boko Haram succeeds in shutting more secular schools, expect their next step to be carrying out similar attacks on non-jihadi Islamic schools. The organisation already has a long history of targeting Islamic leaders and congregations that oppose their violent campaign -two such clerics were murdered in Borno state in May.
Boko Haram's campaign against schools it does not control should not be seen as a consequence of the security crackdown. If anything, the increased security presence may be all that is preventing them from casting their bloody net far wider.
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