Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

by Tim Marshall

when the Nigerian military come looking for them Boko Haram are operating on home ground. Much of the local population will not co-operate with the military, either for fear of reprisal or due to a shared resentment of the south. Despite several major operations against it by the army, the group looks far from defeated. In 2017 it was still strong enough to go on the offensive, killing dozens of civilians in a series of raids. Since it first appeared in 2009 more than 20,000 people have been killed and thousands more abducted. The territory taken by Boko Haram does not yet endanger the existence of the state of Nigeria. The group does not even pose a threat to the capital Abuja, despite it being situated halfway up the country; but they do pose a daily threat to people in the north and they damage Nigeria’s reputation abroad as a place to do business.