Islamic extremism in Northern Nigeria

Boko Haram has kidnapped at least 185 people, including women and children, from a Nigerian village, carting the hostages away on trucks towards Sambisa Forest, a notorious rebel stronghold, two local officials and a vigilante leader said Dec. 18.
      

Boko Haram militants killed 32 people and kidnapped scores of others in an attack on the village of Gumsuri in the restive northeast, two local officials and a witness said Dec. 18.
      

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to hunt down those behind "heinous" attacks that killed at least 120 at the mosque of an Islamic leader who issued a call to arms against Boko Haram.
      

Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey is not only historic, but also timely, as global terrorism is on the rise with terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) every day killing hundreds of innocent people in the name of Islam.

At least 45 people were killed in a suspected Boko Haram attack in northeast Nigeria, officials and witnesses said on Nov. 20, in the latest violence to hit the restive region.
      

A suicide bomb attack killed 47 students and injured 79 others on Nov. 10 as they gathered for morning assembly at their school in northeast Nigeria, a massacre likely carried out by Boko Haram, police told AFP.        

"There was an explosion detonated by a suicide bomber," national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said, referring to the attack in Potiskum in Yobe state.        

A suicide bombing at a Shiite ceremony killed at least 15 people in northeastern Nigeria on Nov. 3 while 132 inmates were at large after a daring prison break.
      
The attack in Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe state, came as Shia Muslims marked Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
      

Boko Haram has used kidnapped young women and girls on the front lines of its insurgency, according to a new report published on Oct. 27, after a fresh abduction in Nigeria's far northeast.
      
Human Rights Watch made the claim as it outlined testimony from dozens of former hostages who documented physical and psychological abuse at the hands of the militants.