The 2009 Boko Haram insurgency cost over 4000 lives, displaced close to half a million civilians, and destroyed much of north-east Nigeria’s infrastructure, devastating the already poor economy. This further escalated grievances of the Northeastern population, most of whom are Muslim, and created a more disparaging wealth and social gap between the North and South. Furthermore, Boko Haram has explicitly stated that they believe corrupt and false Muslims control northern Nigeria, and seek to remedy this by establishing an Islamic state adhering to Sharia Law. Boko Haram claims to share close ties with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and formally pledged allegiance to the organization, announcing their allegiance to the caliphate and mission of the Islamic state in March 2015. In December 2019, the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video claiming to showcase the beheading of 11 Christian hostages in Nigeria