This Situational Brief is the third in a series of four rapid assessment briefs commissioned by the UNDP Regional Stabilization Facility for the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) region. It explores the impact of COVID-19 in relation to the risk of recruitment into violent extremism by looking at the known drivers and triggers of extremism in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) region as identified by the ‘Journey to Extremism in Africa’ report. It analyzes the changes to these drivers due to COVID-19.
Violent extremism here refers to religion-inspired groups that reject or are intolerant of existing religious, cultural and social systems and that use physical and psychological violence in pursuit of religious ideologies and goals. Given the recent history of the LCB region, the focus is on extremism inspired by certain violent interpretations of Islam by groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP from Regional PVE Project.
