Boko Haram's rampage of indiscriminate violence and tyranny has been going on for over three years now.
Boko Haram was created in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno, by Islamist cleric Mohammed Yusuf, who led a group of radical Islamist youth in the 1990s.
The group aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, including the implementation of criminal sharia courts across the country.
