Arraf, ‘Nigeria: A Focus on the Boko Haram Insurgency’, A. Building in Nigeria’, The New York Times, 26 August 2011. Thanks to the success of these attacks, the group extended its military control over significant parts of Northeastern Nigeria.

Ekeke, ‘Suicide Bomb Blast at Abuja Police Headquarters – Our Nation’s Moral Dilemma’, Sahara Reporters, 23 June 2011 S. Bellal (ed), The War Report: Armed Conflicts in 2017, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, 2018, p 102. Specifically, Boko Haram has staged suicide bombings against governmental armed forces, civilians and United Nations headquarters alike. Between 20, the attacks conducted by the armed group increased in terms of number, intensity and duration. The first armed confrontations between Boko Haram and the Nigerian Government took place in July 2009 and resulted in five days of intense fighting. For further information, see ‘non-international armed conflict – intensity of violence’ in our Classification section. Various indicative factors are used to assess whether a given situation has met the required intensity threshold, such as the number, duration and intensity of individual confrontations the types of weapons and military equipment used the number of persons and types of forces participating in the fighting the number of casualties the extent of material destruction the number of civilians fleeing and the involvement of the United Nations Security Council.

For further information, see ‘Non-international armed conflict' in our Classification section. Government forces are presumed to satisfy the criteria for organization. Second, in every non-international armed conflict, at least one side in the conflict must be a non-state armed group that exhibits a certain level of organization in order to qualify as a party to the non-international armed conflict. Two criteria need to be assessed in order to answer the question of whether a situation of armed violence amounts to a non-international armed conflict:įirst, the level of armed violence must reach a certain degree of intensity that goes beyond internal disturbances and tensions.

International armed conflicts in africa