아프리카ㆍ중동

This report centers primarily on two vigilante groups and their descendants – the Bakassi Boys in Nigeria’s South East and the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) in Nigeria’s South West. These two groups have been key actors in the vigilante security landscape in the south over the past two decades. The report analyzes their formation, effectiveness, behavior, evolution, and anti-crime, security, and political impacts over the past two decades through the current period. It also analyzes official and unofficial policy responses to these groups by state-level authorities and the federal Government. The span of time that these groups have been in existence permits an examination of their evolution in response to one another, adaptation to changes in local political arrangements, popular reactions, security challenges, and the highly varied and back-and-forth response of state authorities and the federal Government.