Youths in northern Nigeria’s Borno state, where many members of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram (BH) have been arrested in recent weeks, are increasingly joining vigilante gangs to pass on the identity of BH members to the military-police Joint Task Force (JTF) following a string of deadly attacks on schools, according to vigilante groups and residents of Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

“Vigilante groups are springing up in neighbourhoods to counter BH and many young men are joining them,” Abubakar Mallum, the leader of a vigilante group in Maiduguri, told IRIN. “BH has declared war on youths in Maiduguri and Damaturu, which has motivated many young men to join. The battle line has been drawn. Youths have realised they either fight by exposing BH or they risk being killed by BH,” he says.

Vigilante group members are now joining the police and military at checkpoints to identify BH members, Mallum said. “We know them, while the soldiers don’t.” In the most recent high-profile attacks on June 16-17, BH opened fire on the Government Secondary School in Damaturu, Yobe State, and Ansaruddeen private school in Maiduguri, killing 16 students and two teachers, according to Lt-Col. Sagir Musa, military spokesperson for Borno state.

Many BH members have fled camps in northeastern Nigeria following the military crackdown in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states (all in the north), and tried to return to their old neighbourhoods, said residents. The vigilantes, dubbed “civilian JTF” by Nigerian officials, are afraid that with the return of BH members to their neighbourhoods, regular bombings and gun attacks will resume, alongside killings and arson by the military in response.

“We know the (school) attacks are aimed at rattling us to abandon the noble task we have started of exposing BH members in our area. They are just using students as scapegoats,” says Mallum adding: “Since BH members moved out to Marte District (Borno state) we have not had any bombings, and killings have dropped considerably. We are afraid if we allow them to come back, now that the military is hard on them, the relative peace we have been enjoying will be shattered.”

The vigilantes do not bear arms which puts them at great risk of BH reprisals, says Shehu Sani, a leading rights activist in northern Nigeria. In the past, residents of BH enclaves in Maiduguri — including the neighbourhoods of Gwange, Bayan Quarters, Siumari, Gamboru Market and Kaware Maila, among others — were afraid of exposing BH members for fear of reprisals. “But now they want to return, which is what we are working to prevent,” says Mallum.

(Excerpted and adapted from www.irinnews.org)