Mohammed Yusuf

Shortly thereafter, the group’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured and killed while in police custody, as were several of his followers. After a hiatus, the group resurfaced under the leadership of Yusuf’s deputy, Abubakar Shekau, and unleashed a campaign of violence in 2010 that continued in the following years.

…movement, founded in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf in northeastern Nigeria, that since 2009 has carried out assassinations and large-scale acts of violence in that country. The group’s initial proclaimed intent was to uproot the corruption and injustice in Nigeria, which it blamed on Western influences, and to impose Sharīʿah, or…