Boko Haram unleash more violence in Nigeria

Boko Haram attack

Violence has not abated in north eastern Nigeria despite the military's efforts to quash the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. Officials say militants have been pushed out of urban areas, but attacks continue in the countryside. Some Nigerians also fear the militants are moving to areas outside the government's emergency-rule zone.

At an Islamic school in the Nigerian state of Bauchi, children practice the Arabic alphabet.
Bauchi is not one of the three states where the government has imposed a state of emergency as part of efforts to crush Boko Haram. But the children's teacher says Bauchi residents are increasingly afraid of the four-year-old Boko Haram insurgency.

Boko Haram, he says, may claim to be an Islamist militant group fighting to impose it's version of Islamic law, but with constantly changing tactics and increasing attacks on Muslim communities its hard to say what they really want. "Who is the actual target? Who is hiding behind this umbrella? Actually this is what we have noticed with regards to these actions of Boko Haram," said the teacher.

The teacher declined to give his name because of fears the militants will attack him. This week, there were two attacks outside the security zones. In Bauchi, police say four officers were killed and one was wounded in a shootout Thursday night. Nasiru Mohammad, a witness, says he saw gunmen fleeing and bodies piled in a truck.

The attack was similar to the many hit-and-run attacks Boko Haram has carried out on authority figures over the past four years. The group is blamed for thousands of deaths in attacks on schools, churches, mosques, security forces, infrastructure and government buildings.

Before the recent government offensive, many of those attacks were in major northern cities like Maiduguri and Kano. In recent weeks, violence has moved to remote villages and roads in the northeast. Thomas Hansen, senior Africa analyst at the security consulting firm Control Risks, says the militants are now targeting villages to prevent locals from supporting civilian vigilante groups operating with government support.