The weaponization of sexual violence: Boko Haram’s quest for control over territories and women’s bodies

Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lida’awati Wal Jihad, or Boko Haram, started in northeastern Nigeria in 2002 as a religious group opposing secularization. By 2010, it had escalated to assassinations and large-scale abductions, forcing women into marriage and using them as suicide bombers. This paper examines Boko Haram through a feminist political economy perspective, utilizing primary and secondary data. It traces the group’s changing ideology by analyzing how it exploited gendered socio-economic structures. The paper shows how deep-rooted inequalities enabled Boko Haram to “weaponise” forms of sexual violence, strengthening its control through fear and terror.