Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:50:43.494Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Precariousness of Protection: Civilian Defense Groups Countering Boko Haram in Northeastern Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2020

Daniel E. Agbiboa Open the ORCID record for Daniel E. Agbiboa [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For all the academic and policy interest in Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency, the coping strategies of civilians who survive amid everyday violence have received relatively little attention. Focusing on the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), a pro-government militia fighting Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, Agbiboa explores how and why the group emerged, the nature of its relationship with the state and local communities, and how counterinsurgent vigilantism affects the prospects for peace. A focus on vigilantes and civil militias vis-à-vis the state points to the vital role of civil-military cooperation for effective counterinsurgency campaigns and for reducing state violence against civilians. At the same time, it underscores the precariousness of protection both in terms of increasing the targeting of civilians by vengeful insurgents as well as the tendency for civilian defense groups to “turn bad” and become threats to the communities they were expected to protect.

Résumé

Résumé

Malgré tout l’intérêt académique et politique porté à l’insurrection de Boko Haram au Nigeria, les stratégies d’adaptation des civils qui survivent au milieu de la violence quotidienne ont reçu relativement peu d’attention. En se concentrant sur la Force d’intervention civile conjointe (CJTF), une milice pro-gouvernementale combattant Boko Haram dans le nord-est du Nigeria, Agbiboa explore comment et pourquoi le groupe a émergé, la nature de ses relations avec l’État et les communautés locales et comment le vigilantisme anti-insurrectionnel affecte les perspectives de paix. L’accent mis sur les milices autodéfense et civiles vis-à-vis de l’État souligne le rôle vital de la coopération entre civils et militaires pour des campagnes anti-insurrectionnelles efficaces et pour réduire la violence de l’État contre les civils. En même temps, elle souligne la précarité de la protection, tant en termes d’augmentation du ciblage des civils par les insurgés vengeurs ainsi que la tendance des groupes de défense civile à "tourner mal" et à devenir des menaces pour les communautés qu’ils étaient censés protéger.

Resumo

Resumo

Apesar de todo o interesse oficial e académico em torno da insurreição do Boko Haram, na Nigéria, as estratégias de sobrevivência a que população civil recorre para lidar com a violência diária têm recebido relativamente pouca atenção. Centrando a sua análise na Força-Tarefa Conjunta Civil (Civilian Joint Task Force, CJTF), uma milícia pró-governo que enfrenta o Boko Haram no nordeste da Nigéria, Agbiboa procura esclarecer as razões por que esta Força surgiu e o modo como se organizou, a natureza da sua relação com o Estado e as comunidades locais, e de que forma as atividades destes vigilantes afetam as perspetivas de paz. O enfoque nos vigilantes, nas milícias civis e na sua relação com o Estado sugere que a cooperação civil-militar é essencial para a eficácia das campanhas de contrainsurreição e para diminuir a violência do Estado contra os civis. Simultaneamente, evidencia-se a natureza precária da proteção que essa cooperação proporciona às populações, quer porque contribui para intensificar os ataques sobre civis perpetrados por insurgentes vingativos, quer porque as iniciativas dos grupos civis de defesa correm tendencialmente mal, tornando-se uma ameaça para as comunidades que pretendiam defender.

Keywords

Boko HaramNigeriacivilian defense groupsCivilian Joint Task Force (CJTF)vigilantismcounterinsurgency
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 192 - 216
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbah, Theophilus. 2012. “White Paper on Security: Report Links Boko Haram with London Scholar.” Daily Trust, May 23.Google Scholar
Abbink, Jon. 2005. “Being Young in Africa: The Politics of Despair and Renewal.” In Vanguards or Vandals: Youth, Politics and Conflict in Africa, edited by Abbink, Jon and van Kessel, Ineke, 1–33. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrahams, Ray. 1987. “Sungusungu: Village Vigilante Groups in Tanzania.” African Affairs 86 (343): 179–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
AFP. 2013. “Vigilantes Raise Concern and Hope in Embattled Nigerian City.” July 30.Google Scholar
AFP. 2019. “Nigerian protesters demand end to anti-Boko Haram militia.” June 30.Google Scholar
Agbiboa, Daniel Egiegba. 2013. “Why Boko Haram Exists: The Relative Deprivation Perspective.” African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 3(1): 144–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agbiboa, Daniel Egiegba. 2019. “Origins of Hybrid and Armed Community Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa.” RESOLVE Network, October 2019. Community Based Armed Groups Series. Retrieved from: https://resolvenet.org/system/files/2019-10/RSVE_CBAGs_Origins_Agbiboa_Oct2019.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 2004. “Affective Economies.” Social Text 79 (2): 117–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 2015. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 2018. “‘They Betrayed Us’: Women who Survived Boko Haram Raped, Starved and Detained in Nigeria.” May 24.Google Scholar
Anderson, David M. 2002. “Vigilantes, Violence and the Politics of Public Order in Kenya.” African Affairs 101 (1): 531–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagayoko, Niagale, Hutchful, Eboe, and Luckham, Robin. 2016. “Hybrid security governance in Africa: Rethinking the foundations of security, justice and legitimate public authority.” Conflict, Security and Development 16 (1): 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellagamba, Alice, and Klute, Georg. 2008. Beside the State: Emergent Powers in Contemporary Africa. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Google Scholar
Breen-Smyth, Marie. 2014. “Theorizing the ‘Suspect Community’: Counterterrorism, Security Practices, and the Public Imagination.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 7 (2): 223–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buur, Lars. 2006. “Reordering Society: Vigilantism and Expressions of Sovereignty in Port Elizabeth’s Townships.” Development and Change 37 (4): 735–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, Sabine C., Mitchell, Neil J., and Lowe, Will. 2013. “States, the Security Sector, and the Monopoly of Violence: A New Database on Pro-Government Militias.” Journal of Peace Research 50 (2): 249–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, Sabine C. and Mitchell, Neil J.. n.d. “The Monopoly of Violence and the Puzzling Survival of Pro-Government Militias.” Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/31e6/5d088b4ce94a47d143e0704cef7186fdc8c7.pdf Google Scholar
Casey, Conerly. 2007. “Policing through Violence: Fear, Vigilantism and the Politics of Islam in Northern Nigeria.” In Global Vigilantes: Perspectives on Justice and Violence, edited by Pratten, David and Sens, Atreyee, 93–126. London: Hurst & Company.Google Scholar
Casey, Conerly. 2008. “‘Marginal Muslims’: Politics and the Perceptual Bounds of Islamic Authenticity in Northern Nigeria.” Africa Today 54 (3): 67–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Civilians in Conflict. 2018. “Civilian Perceptions of the Yan Gora (CJTF) in Borno State, Nigeria.” Center for Civilians in Conflict, Washington DC. June.Google Scholar
Comaroff, Jean, and Comaroff, John. 1999. “Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the South African Postcolony.” American Ethnologist 26 (2), 279–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daily Trust . 2009. “Nigeria: The Nation’s Poor Record Keeping Culture.” November 18.Google Scholar
Debos, Marielle. 2011. “Living by the gun in Chad: armed violence as a practical occupation.” Journal of Modern African Studies 49 (3): 409–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dirkx, Toon. 2018. “The Unintended Consequences of U.S. Support on Militia Governance in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan.” Civil Wars 19 (3): 377–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ero, Comfort. 2000. “Vigilantes, Civil Defense Forces and Militia Groups: The Other Side of the Privatisation of Security in Africa.” Conflict Trends 1 (6): 25–29.Google Scholar
Gopfert, Mirco. 2016. “Surveillance in Niger: Gendarmes and the Problem of ‘Seeing Things.’” African Studies Review 59 (2): 39–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gore, Charles, and Pratten, David. 2003. “The Politics of Plunder: The Rhetorics of Order and Disorder in Southern Nigeria.” African Affairs 102 (407): 211–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Guardian . 2018. “Boko Haram Land Mines in Nigeria Killed at least 162 in Two Years.” September 23.Google Scholar
Heitz-Tokpa, Kathrin. 2019. “Mande Hunters and the State: Cooperation and Contestation in Post-Conflict Cote d’Ivoire.” African Studies Review 62 (1): 148–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higazi, Adam. 2008. “Social Mobilization and Collective Violence: Vigilantes and Militias in the Lowlands of Plateau State, Central Nigeria.” Africa 78 (1): 107–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, Danny. 2007. “The Meaning of a Militia: Understanding the Civil Defense Forces of Sierra Leone.” African Affairs 106 (425): 639–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2019. “Nigeria: Events of 2018.” World Report. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/nigeria.Google Scholar
Hyndman, Jennifer and Malathi, de Alwis. 2004. “Bodies, Shrines, and Roads: Violence, (Im)mobility and Displacement in Sri Lanka.” Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 11 (4): 535–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ICG. 2017. “Double-Edged Sword: Vigilantes in African Counter-Insurgencies.” African Report No. 251. September 7.Google Scholar
Idris, Hamza, and Sawab, Ibrahim. 2013. “Hope Turn to Fears Over ‘Civilian JTF.’” Daily Trust, June 29.Google Scholar
IRIN. 2013. “Civilian vigilante groups increase dangers in north-eastern Nigeria.” December 12.Google Scholar
Ismail, Salwa. 2006. Political Life in Cairo’s New Quarters: Encountering the Everyday State. Minneapolis: Regents of the University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Jeganathan, Pradeep. 2004. “Checkpoint: Anthropology, Identity and the State.” In Anthropology on the Margins of the State, edited by Das, Veena and Poole, Deborah, 67–80. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Jentzsch, Corrinna, Kalyvas, Stathis N., and Schubiger, Livia Isabella. 2015. “Militias in civil wars.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 59 (5): 755–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Rebecca. 2008. “State Failure and Extra-Legal Justice: Vigilante Groups, Civil Militias and the Rule of Law in West Africa.” Research Paper No. 66, UNHCR, October.Google Scholar
Jose, Betcy, and Medie, Peace A.. 2015. “Understanding Why and How Civilians Resort to Self-Protection in Armed Conflict.” International Studies Review 17 (4): 515–535.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis. 2003. “The Ontology of ‘Political Violence’: Action and Identity in Civil Wars.” Perspectives on Politics 1 (3): 475–94.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Oliver. 2017. Resisting War: How Communities Protect Themselves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasfir, Nelson, Frerks, Georg, and Terpstra, Niels. 2018. “Introduction: Armed Groups and Multi-layered Governance.” Civil Wars 19 (3): 257–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalili, Laleh. 2011. “Gendered Practices of Counterinsurgency.” Review of International Studies 37 (4): 1471–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalili, Laleh. 2014. “The Uses of Happiness in Counterinsurgencies.” Social Text 118 (32): 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilcullen, David. 2006. “Twenty-Eight Chapters: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency.” Military Review 86: 103–8.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, David. 1991. “Counterinsurgent Vigilantism and Public Response.” Sociological Perspectives 34 (20): 127–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, Jana. 2017. “Non-violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War: Evidence from Jos, Nigeria.” African Affairs 116 (463): 261–83.Google Scholar
Lar, Jimam. 2017. “Historicizing Vigilante Policing in Plateau State, Nigeria.” In Police in Africa: The Street level, edited by Beek, Jan, Gopfert, Mirco, Owen, Olly, and Steiberg, Jonny, 79–102. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Leach, Melissa. 2000. “New Shapes to Shift: War, Parks and the Hunting Person in Modern West Africa.” Journal of the Royal African Institute 6 (4): 577–95.Google Scholar
Masquelier, Adeline. 2001. “Behind the Dispensary’s Prosperous Façade: Imagining the State in Rural Niger.” Public Culture 13 (2): 267–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbembe, Achille. 1992. “Provisional notes on the postcolony.” Africa 62: 3–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meagher, Kate. 2007. “Hijacking Civil Society: The Inside Story of the Bakassi Boys Vigilante Group of South-Eastern Nigeria.” Journal of Modern African Studies 45 (1): 89–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meagher, Kate. 2012. “The Strength of Weak States? Non-State Security Forces and Hybrid Governance in Africa.” Development and Change 43 (5): 1073–1101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menkhaus, Ken. 2006/7. “Governance without Government in Somalia: Spoilers, State Building, and the Politics of Coping.” International Security 31 (3): 74–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merry, Sally E. 2006. “Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle.” American Anthropologist 108 (1): 38–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mkandawire, Thandika. 2002. “The Terrible Toll of Postcolonial ‘Rebel Movements’ in Africa: Towards an Explanation of the Violence against the Peasantry.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 40 (2): 181–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mustapha, Abdul Raufu. 2014. “Synthesis Paper on Lessons Learned from Responses to Violent Conflicts in Nigeria since 2009: With Special Reference to Northern Nigeria.” NSRP.Google Scholar
Ndimele, Manuel. 2016. “Civilian JTF Member Held for Borno IDP Camp Bomb Attack.” Legit. Retrieved from: https://www.legit.ng/406760-how-civilian-jtf-stopped-borno-idp-camp-bomb-attack.html.Google Scholar
Nigerian Bulletin . 2013. “Boko Haram: Borno Empowers 800 Youths for Civilian JTF.” September 27.Google Scholar
Nolte, Insa. 2007. “Ethnic Vigilantes and the State: The Oodua People’s Congress in South-Western Nigeria.” International Relations 21 (2): 217–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolte, Insa. 2008. “‘Without Women, Nothing Can Succeed’: Yoruba Women in the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Nigeria.” Africa 78 (1): 84–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NSRP. 2016. “Nigeria Watch: Sixth Report on Violence in Nigeria.” Retrieved from: http://www.nigeriawatch.org/media/html/NGA-Watch-Report16V7.pdf Google Scholar
Odunsi, Wale. 2014. “Boko Haram will continue to kill—Full text of Shekau’s speech declaring caliphate in northern Nigeria.” Daily Post, August 25.Google Scholar
Odunsi, Wale. 2015. “Borno: Shettima Salutes Youth Volunteers for Repelling BH.” Daily Post, February 2.Google Scholar
Okeowo, Alexis. 2015. “The People vs. Boko Haram.” The New York Times, January 28.Google Scholar
Omonigho, Matthew. 2017. “Boko Haram: Over 700 Civilian JTF Members Died Defending Boko Haram—Jubril Gunda.” Daily Post, June 30.Google Scholar
Paden, John. 2012. Postelection Conflict Management in Nigeria: The Challenges of National Unity. Arlington, Virginia: George Mason University Press.Google Scholar
Peic, Goran. 2014. “Civilian Defense Forces, State Capacity, and Government Victory in Counterinsurgency Wars.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 37 (2): 162–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perouse de Montclos, Marc-Antoine., ed. 2014. Boko Haram: Islamism, Politics, Security and the State in Nigeria. Ibadan: IFRA-Nigeria.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratten, David. 2008. “The Politics of Protection: Perspectives on Vigilantism in Nigeria.” Africa 78 (1): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodgers, Dennis. 2007. “When Vigilantes Turn Bad: Gangs, Violence, and Social Change in Urban Nicaragua.” In Global Vigilantes, edited by Pratten, David and Sen, Atreyee, 349–70. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2004. “The Bakassi Boys: Vigilantism, Violence, and Political Imagination in Nigeria.” Cultural Anthropology 19 (3): 429–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2007. A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontents in Nigeria. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stevenson, Lisa. 2007. “Anthropology in the Margins of the State.” Political and Legal Anthropology Review 30 (1): 140–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strochlic, Nina A. 2014. “Nigeria’s Do-It-Yourself Boko Haram Busters.” The Daily Beast, May 16.Google Scholar
Umar, L.Yusuf. 2014. “The role of the Civilian JTF in tackling Boko Haram problems in Borno.” Al-Maharam, VI.Google Scholar
UN Security Council. 2017. “Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict in Nigeria.” April 10.Google Scholar
United Nations. 2017. “Borno State LGA’s: Baseline Information for Planners.”Google Scholar
Vanguard . 2013. “Civilian JTF vs. Boko Haram: Concern, Hope in Embattled Restive City.” July 30.Google Scholar
Van Metre, Lauren. 2019. “From self-defense to vigilantism: A typology of framework of community-based armed groups.” RESOLVE Network. Community Based Armed Groups Series, October.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vigh, Henrik. 2006. Navigating the Terrains of War: Youth and Soldiering in Guinea Bissau. New York: Berghan.Google Scholar
Wlodarczyk, Nathalie. 2009. Magic and Warfare: Appearance and Reality in Contemporary African Conflict and Beyond. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Reed M. 2010. “Rebel capability and strategic violence against civilians.” Journal of Peace Research 47 (5): 601–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Reed M., Jacob, D. Kathman, and Steven, E. Gent. 2012. “Armed intervention and civilian victimization in intrastate conflicts.” Journal of Peace Research 49 (5): 647–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar