Magister Legum - LLM / As the world evolves new perils emerge which pose a significant threat to human and child rights, it is imperative that the protection of these rights is prioritised. Human rights can be defined as the rights that every human being is entitled to. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was one of the first international legal instruments which set forth the basic human rights of citizens which are applicable irrespective of race, culture, sex or economic standing highlighting the universal applicability of human rights. Human rights violations have been prevalent on the African continent due to regimes such as apartheid and the innumerable armed conflicts which have played out in states such as Sierra Leone, Angola, South Sudan and Uganda. Over the past century a variety of insurgent groups have emerged, and their actions has resulted in catastrophic human rights violations across continent. Insurgent groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, Al-Shabab in Somalia, M 23 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Tajoura Battalion in Libya are some of the armed factions at the forefront of current conflicts.

Studies have examined the causes and impacts of terrorism in Nigeria; however, no known research has documented the psychological impacts of witnessing ongoing Boko Haram terrorist violence based on the lived experiences of Nigerian children. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the psychological consequences of the Boko Haram insurgency based on the lived experience of Nigerian children exposed to terrorism in Nigeria. The study's theoretical framework combined Piaget's theory of cognitive development and punctuated equilibrium theory. The central research question examined the adverse psychological effects of the Boko Haram insurgency for Nigerian children residing in Nigeria. Data for this study were collected through interviews from a purposeful sample of 8 participants who were exposed to the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and a review of literature that primarily included peer-reviewed articles and studies relevant to the psychological theories. Colaizzi's method of phenomenological analysis was employed for data analysis. Results showed that all the participants reported negative symptoms of mental health disorders, which did not lead to permanent mental health illnesses. Among the participants, the primary factors that moderated the symptoms, preventing progression to permanent mental health illnesses, were fasting and religious support. Implications for positive social change include giving voice to voiceless Nigerian children and providing the Nigerian populace, multilateral and bilateral organizations, and the Nigerian government with information necessary to understand the effects of terrorism on children and promote resilience in children who have experienced terrorism.

With the evolving problems of terrorism in Nigeria and the formation of numerous new terrorist groups, insurgency in Nigeria has escalated, making it one of the most terrorized countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This study looked critically at the effects of the strategies applied in the attempt to fight terrorism and how these strategies have affected insurgency in Nigeria. The background of the study gives an insight on the evolution of terrorist groups in Nigeria, their mode of operation, effects on citizens and the Nigerian economy, as well as the operations of counterterrorist agencies. The qualitative research method was used for this study. Critical theory and resource dependence theory were applied, and data were obtained through face-to-face and telephone interviews with 7 stakeholders. Detailed recommendations are made to aid counterterrorist agencies in developing and applying additional and effective workable strategies in their fight against terrorism. Policies in Nigeria were recommended that may discourage terrorism initiations and center the focus of youth towards nation-building. Social problems were identified connecting young people as the primary causes of terrorism in Nigeria. Solid recommendations in this direction have been provided to ensure youths across the country who form a vulnerable population and are the targets of terrorist sect recruitment are protected and provided with effective tools to prevent their conscription, while engaging them positively in becoming knowledgeable and self-reliant citizens.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This study investigates the terror groups Boko Haram and Abu Sayyaf. The study starts with the Islamic history in both Nigeria and The Philippines in order to get a broader picture and understanding of the subject. The purpose with this research paper is to study the radicalization process of these two movements listed above. To study the radicalization process of these two movements I will be using Eitan Y Alimi, Chares Demetriou and Lorenzo Bosi, relational, dynamics and process analytical framework. The question this thesis is trying to answer is how these two social movements eventually became two notorious terror organizations. This research paper is carried out as a comparative case study in order to find similarities and differences between the two cases so it can be generalized. The research paper also applies the method of abduction. The findings show that there are many similarities between Boko Haram as well as many differences. But also that specific political decisions made by the governments in both countries helped to further radicalize Boko Haram and Abu Sayyaf.

Magister Legum - LLM / This paper will explore the history of the outbreak of religious related violence in Nigeria and the response of Nigeria and the African Union to the acts of the Boko Haram group both legally and procedurally. The intervention of the ICC as a viable option to combat the scourge of the group will also be examined. Other options such as trial in the Court of third States under the principle of universal jurisdiction and a special court jointly facilitated by the States involved will also be assessed.

The thesis focuses on the phenomenon of Boko Haram in Nigeria, attempting to give an understanding of the group based on the academical analysis that has been elaborated through time. A contextualisation of the movement’s evolution introduces two cases of study, currently under scholars’ scrutiny: the birth of the splinter-cell Ansaru and the Chibok kidnapping. The work is integrated by on-going debates among scholars and the most recently published contributions to the research.

There is a need to address current military strategies to defeat the resilience of the Boko Haram Terrorist (BHT) group. The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide a counter-ideology framework as an alternative strategy to defeat the group. The relational/vengeance and relative deprivation theories provided the theoretical foundation for the study, and the research question addressed the extent to which counter-ideology strategies can be instituted to defeat the BHT group. Data were collected through semi structured interviews from 20 participants who were Muslim clerics, community leaders, and military personnel, and data were analyzed using Nvivo software. The themes for the study were developed using a content analysis approach. The findings indicated that the resilience of Boko Haram was due to the group's ability to maintain an ideological consistency with the extreme version of Jihadi-Salafism. Thus, there is a need to develop an effective reconciliatory national security strategy that is focused on counter-ideology policies to augment the ongoing military strategy. Given that counter-ideology offers a nonmilitary counterterrorism approach, it can deescalate the security situation in Northeast Nigeria, which can lead to socioeconomic benefits for the youth in Nigeria.

Within the civil war literature, state-rebel relationships are traditionally understood as strictly contentious. However, empirical observations suggest that the two contending parties are not always in a state of total war and their collaboration is possible. Conceived in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, this study contributes to a greater understanding of state-rebel interactions during crises and seeks to explain why some rebel groups cooperate with state-led crisis response operations while the others obstruct. I propose that the nature of rebels’ political goals determine their behaviour vis-à-vis the state. The period of time after a disaster presents a window for rebels to strategically calculate and balance the costs and benefits of collaboration with the state. More specifically, I argue that the more transformative the rebel group’s goals are, the less likely the group will collaborate with the state for crisis relief. A structured comparative case study of the Taliban and Boko Haram lends preliminary support to the hypothesis. As one of the first to examine state-rebel relationships during the Covid-19 pandemic, the study invites future research to rethink how to accurately conceptualise and explain the diverse and puzzling interactions between states and rebels.

Boko Haram (BH) insurgency is driven by Islamist ideology and hegemony, nurtured mainly on failed education and sociopolitical policies and less by economic realities in Nigeria. Military counterinsurgency (hard COIN) successes are necessary but not sufficient to neutralize resurgence. The framework for this study was behavior modification by targeted holistic education policy (THEP) over ruminated frustration-aggression of drive theory. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to conduct a survey of educated participants (N = 95), randomly selected from education campuses in Nigeria, to estimate the power (relationship) of THEP over time to neutralize BH resurgence (NBHR). The data from a survey developed for this study were analyzed with descriptive, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and MANCOVA statistics. The powers of THEP applied from nursery through college (age 21) to NBHR or reduce the foot soldiers'€™ recruitment pools (FSRP) and correlations were evaluated. All 7 regression models rejected the null hypotheses. THEP and covariables including illiteracy (IL), political conspiracy (PC) or Islamic hegemony (IH), religious extremism (RE), and economic realities (ER) were related to NBHR. PC correlated inversely with THEP and IL inversely with reducing FSRP. ER had the least impetus (power) to drive resurgence. The results of this study can be used to promote positive social change by providing information on the prospects (estimated power) of THEP, acting with other COIN measures, to NBHR. The study may contribute to a better understanding of the impetus and solution to BH resurgence, but calls for further investigation into the power of nonmilitary COIN, particularly THEP, in Nigeria.