Boko Haram, ISWAP resume fighting after failed reconciliation move

Two weeks after a failed reconciliation move between Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), popularly known as Boko Haram, and its breakaway faction, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), both groups have resumed fighting in Abadam Local Government Area of Borno State.

This is not the first time the Bakura Doro-led faction of Boko Haram and ISWAP engaged in such violent fighting on the islands of Lake Chad Basin.

The recent clash, according to Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency expert in the North-east, occurred on 14 February around ISWAP camps in Toumbun Gini and Toumbun Ali.

Mr Makama, in an X post, said ISWAP suffered heavy casualties in the battle that was fought on water. He said the fighting may continue and spread to Kukawa LGA, where Boko Haram fighters continue their campaign against ISWAP.

Both groups have been fighting each other since ISWAP split from Boko Haram in 2016 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Abubakar Shekau, a former idiosyncratic leader of JAS, had, in 2015, pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), making him the leader of ISWAP.

However, ideological differences forced some top members of the group, including Habib Yusuf, the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, to fall out with Mr Shekau.

The breakaway faction led by Mr Yusuf, otherwise known as Abu Musab al-Barnawi, went ahead to bear the name ISWAP with its operational bases in the islands and shores of the Lake Chad basin, restricting their brothers-in-arms to places like Sambisa and Mandara Mountain in Gwoza.

The genesis of the infighting

When the groups first split in 2016, the Islamic State tried all it could to reconcile them, but the negotiation failed majorly as a result of Mr Shekau’s ideological stance, especially on who should be regarded as a kufar [apostate] and why they must be executed.

That same year of the schism, the Islamic State officially recognised Mr Yusuf as the leader of ISWAP. This situation forced Mr Shekau and some of his loyalists to revert to his JAS designation.

Subsequently, a clash between ISWAP and Boko Haram led to the death of Mr Shekau, who experts believe killed himself to escape ridicule after his Sambisa hideout was raided on 19 May 2021. This ended Mr Shekau’s 11 years of terror campaign.

As the shadowy Bakura Doro succeeded Mr Shekau, supremacy fights between both groups continued, diminishing their strengths. This is besides strategic military offensives against the groups, although it is believed that these rivalry fights have killed more insurgents than military offensives.

The failed reconciliation

Two weeks earlier, Mr Doro wrote a letter to the ISWAP leadership, seeking reconciliation between both groups, said Malik Samuel, a researcher with a deep understanding of jihadi groups in northeastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin region.

PREMIUM TIMES could not get a copy of the letter written by Mr Doro. But Mr Samuel said insiders told him the letter was about reconciliation.

He explained that ISWAP set up a committee to look into the request before the current clash.

A Borno-based journalist who has been reporting on violent extremism in the North-east corroborated Mr Samuel, saying the reconciliation process failed.

“The ongoing clash may not be unconnected with the failed peace deal,” the journalist, who asked not to be named for his safety, said.

Although the ISWAP has always been open for reconciliation with Boko Haram since the death of Mr Shekau, the move has always failed due to differences in beliefs, such as the treatment of civilians who do not believe in jihad.

As the rivalry continues, both groups now resort to guerilla tactical attacks, deploying IEDs of various types to hit their targets. According to experts, this shift in operational pattern shows a significant combat weakness within the groups.

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But that does not mean the state actors have won the war. Our correspondent understands that groups, especially ISWAP, intensify their endearing strategies in the local communities they control. Noting that more than 35 million people need support because of the instability in Lake Chad that has claimed thousands of lives, the European Union recently allocated €201 million in humanitarian aid for Sahel and Lake Chad countries.

The renewed clash between the two groups, according to Mr Samuel, is “a win” for the Nigerian authority and other regional governments around the Lake Chad region.

“Had the reconciliation worked out between them, it would have been somewhat devastating to the Nigerian military and other regional forces,” Mr Samuel opined, noting that rivalry clashes between the groups decimate more than the ongoing military operations in the North-east

When asked what could have prompted Boko Haram to write a reconciliation letter to ISWAP, the researcher explained that it may be due to the international recognition that ISWAP enjoys.

“It is not because of economic or funding issues,” he explained. “Boko Haram since before the death of Shekau has its funding model. They thrive on taxation of local fishers, herders and farmers.”

According to him, Boko Haram might be envious of last year’s scenario when Islamic State sent foreign instructors to train ISWAP fighters, including minors, in December.