Fading or Festering? Inside Boko Haram’s quiet push to train 8,000 new fighters

Across the Lake Chad Basin, commanders have been killed, thousands have surrendered, and communities resettled. But a three-month HumAngle investigation find an insurgency still capable of replacing fighters, governing populations, and preparing an estimated 8,000 children for its next generation. Ahmad Salkida in collaboration with Guardian Digital Investigates writes.

Khalil was a child in 2015.

The son of Mohammed Zangina, a first-generation Kaid in the Boko Haram terror group, he was still a little boy when he was photographed in Gwoza around 2015. He grew up under the insurgent leadership, became a fighter, and later joined its media wing. Today, he is a senior member of Maktab al-Shar‘i (ISWAP’s apex religious committee), where he helps train another generation of children.

Khalil and his siblings were at home when soldiers raided their family house in Maiduguri in January 2013. Their father was killed during the operation, and the family’s account of how he died differed from the military’s.

The child in yesterday’s propaganda is now helping produce the children of tomorrow’s war.

HumAngle’s investigation, which spanned July, August and September, finds that the insurgents operating across northeastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin retain substantial capacity to fight, mobilise people, and regulate civilian life. It further revealed a dedicated pipeline of next-generation insurgents, routinely prepared by training children of insurgent members in combat skills and administrative service.Our investigation reveals the careful building of institutions that guarantee efficiency in battles and consistency in subduing foes. They are structuring family households, armies, and economies that are integrated, bold, and sacrificial, able to adapt under extreme conditions of scarcity and survive setbacks such as the destruction of camps.


The different armies within one war

“Boko Haram” remains a common shorthand for the insurgency. Here, JAS refers to Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad and its associated networks, including the Lake Chad network led by Bakura Doro at the Nigeria-Niger border. The larger Boko Haram population are spread across the Mandara Mountains and northern and central Borno mainland.

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