(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75306000/jpg/_75306515_line976.jpg) Who are Boko Haram?
- Founded in 2002
- Initially focused on opposing Western education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
- Launched military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state
- Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - but also attacks on police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
- Some three million people affected
- Declared terrorist group by US in 2013
Who are Boko Haram? (http://www.theinfostride.com/news/world-africa-13809501)
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75306000/jpg/_75306515_line976.jpg) On Thursday, the Borno Elders Forum (BEF), which represents influential people in the state, released a statement urging the military to "fortify" Maiduguri, the city where Boko Haram was founded in 2002, to prevent an assault "from all directions".
Boko Haram has captured a string of towns and villages in Borno, as well as territory in neighbouring Adamawa state, forcing thousands of people to flee to the hills.
The Islamist group's five-year insurgency is seen as the biggest threat to Nigeria's territorial integrity since the 1967-70 civil war, analysts say.
In recent months it has changed tactics, by holding on to towns in the north-east, where mostly Muslims live, instead of carrying out hit-and-run attacks.
Source: BBC