Boko Haram insurgency has claimed nearly 100,000 lives, new report says

The governor of Borno state in Nigeria has released a new report indicating that the Islamic terror group Boko Haram has killed nearly 100,000 people and driven over two million Nigerians out of their homes.

Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima presented the report titled "Managing the Boko Haram Crisis in Borno State, Experiences and Lessons for a Multiparty, Multiethnic and Multireligious Nigeria" during the annual Murtala Mohammed memorial lecture held at the Shehu Yar'Adua Centre in Abuja, Premium Times reported.

The governor said that the figure was based on the estimates of the community leaders over the years. He noted that as many as 2,114,000 people have been internally displaced as of December 2016, with 537,815 in separate camps and 158,201 in official camps.

Another 379,614 are situated at 15 satellite camps in the state, while 73,404 people were forced to become refugees in neighboring Niger and Cameroon.

Shettima also cited a Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) report which indicated that the damage caused by Boko Haram in the region has amounted to $9 billion.

In the past year, the Nigerian government has repeatedly declared that it has beaten the terror group.

In December 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that Boko Haram has been "technically defeated." Twelve months later, he said that the militant group has been expelled from their final enclave.

Additionally, Major General Lucky Irabor, who heads the Nigerian counter-insurgency operation, recently told reporters that the group was "in disarray and... desperate."

However, the attacks that occurred throughout January in Nigeria as well as in neighboring Niger and Cameroon, has put the extent of the government's claim of success into question.

Shettima asserted that conspiracy theories hampered the previous administration's ability to defeat Boko Haram.

He noted that in 2011, a conspiracy theory emerged that Boko Haram has been set up by Muslim-majority northern leaders to target Christians and make the country ungovernable for former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Shettima further noted that the conspiracy theories came out after two terror attacks occurred in June and August 2011, which were within three months after Jonathan was sworn-in. However, he pointed out that the first major attacks carried out by Boko Haram took place in 2009, during the term of the late President Umaru Yar'Adua, a Northern Muslim from Katsina State.

The governor cautioned Nigerians against believing conspiracy theories and called on them to suppress their biases and work hard to gather the facts on all issues.

"We must recognise that for every conspiracy theory, there is group that stands to gain politically. As Nigerians, we should regularly free our minds and ask ourselves, who stands to gain on any conspiracy theory we come across," the governor said.

"We must stop condoning our collective callous attitude that predispose us to blaming victims for their losses in lives and property, the protection of which is a main reason for the existence of every government in the first place," he added.