Overview

An insurgency in Nigeria by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has left thousands dead, shaken Africa's biggest country and worried the world. Yet they remain a mysterious almost unknowable organisation. Through exhaustive on-the-ground reporting, M.J. Smith takes readers inside the violence and provides the first in-depth account of the conflict. He traces Boko Haram from its beginnings as a small Islamist sect in Nigeria's remote northeast, led by a baby-faced but charismatic preacher, to its transformation into a hydra-headed monster, deploying suicide bombers and abducting innocent schoolgirls. Much of the book is told through the eyes of Nigerians who have found themselves caught between the violence of a shadowy group of insurgents, brutal security forces accused of horrifying abuses and an inept government led by an accidental president. It includes the voices of a forgotten police officer left paralysed by an attack, women whose husbands have been murdered and a sword-wielding vigilante using charms to fend off insurgent bullets. It journeys through the sleaze and corruption that has robbed Africa's biggest oil producer of its potential, making it such fertile ground for extremism. Along the way it questions whether there can be any end to the violence and the ways in which this might be achieved. Interspersed with history, this book delves into the roots of this unholy war being waged against the backdrop of an evolving extremist threat worldwide.

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9781784535537

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Reviews

'[readers] get a vivid impression of the horrors associated with the group and the campaign against it, thanks to Mr Smith's reporting-the book's main strength...Considering the dearth of information available, this is a commendable first draft of history.' - The Economist; 'The best bits of Inside Nigeria's Unholy War are focused reportage such as the moving tale of Wellington Asiayei, an assistant police superintendent shot in a 2012 attack in the northern city of Kano...Smith's achievement is in diligently marshalling the available information... What shines through is his measured anger, shared by many Nigerians, about a country battered by empire builders, the curse of oil, the military and a devastating 1967-70 civil war.' - Michael Peel, Financial Times; 'Meticulously reported' - Joshua Hammer, New York Review of Books; 'eminently readable...fascinating passages...this book is based on his [the author's] own reporting, lending it genuine authority...he writes with perception, clarity and fair-mindedness.' - David Blair, The Sunday Telegraph

Author Information

Mike Smith is a foreign correspondent for AFP news agency and was bureau chief in Western Africa from 2010 to 2013, based in Nigeria. He has extensively covered the Boko Haram insurgency.

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