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Boko Haram Uses Mafia-Style Tactics To Trap Nigerian Entrepreneurs With Business Loans

Boko Haram Uses Mafia-Style Tactics To Trap Nigerian Entrepreneurs With Business Loans

Many Nigerian youth in the country’s northeast have accepted loans to start up businesses in return for joining the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, said U.S.-based international aid agency Mercy Corps.

Youth see successful business ownership as a way out of poverty, and Boko Haram has promised cash and loans to Nigerian entrepreneurs ranging from beauticians and butchers to traders and tailors, Reuters reported, according to EyewitnessNews.

The lure of business support is often a trap. Those who default on their loans are forced to join the militants or be killed, the report said.

Mercy Corps conducted interviews with 145 people including youths who resisted joining Boko Haram, former members, and family of former members. Reuters did not say how many youth have accepted loans from Boko Haram.

Lack of financing and poor access to financial capital are huge barriers for young African entrepreneurs, according to the Anzisha Youth Entrepreneurship Survey 2016, VenturesAfrica reported.

Young Nigerians are constantly looking for ways to generate income and make a living by establishing their own businesses. Boko Haram is filling a critical gap, according to VenturesAfrica.

“Boko Haram is tapping into the yearning of Nigerian youth to get ahead in an environment of massive inequality,” said Lisa Inks, author of the report and Mercy Corps peacebuilding adviser, in a Thomson Reuters Foundation interview.

“It is incredibly clever,” said. “Either such loans breed loyalty or Boko Haram use mafia style tactics to trap and force young people to join them.”

Six in 10 Nigerians live on less than $1 a day. In the country’s northeast, it’s closer to 75 percent, according to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

Many young people told Mercy Corps they would struggle without the support of powerful “godfathers” to provide capital for their businesses, or cash transfers for equipment and goods, Reuters reported.

The report called for Nigeria to increase financial and business inclusion, support conflict-ridden communities and do a better job of reintegrating people who have fled Boko Haram.

Women and girls freed from Boko Haram are subjected to discrimination, rejection and persecution from their families and communities when they return home, according to a recent report by the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.

Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon in 2015 mounted a regional offensive to drive Boko Haram from northern Nigeria, undermining its six-year campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate there, Reuters reported. The militants struck back with suicide bombings and civilian attacks.