**1. Introduction**

Countering the recruitment, expansion, and activities of terrorist organizations is one of the major challenges confronting actors in combating terrorism (Weeraratne 2017). This is because terrorism remains a major threat to the stability of the international system, given that its impacts whenever such attacks take place leave a long-lasting emotional, physical, and psychological trauma on the targets and victims (Bergesen and Lizardo 2004; Ranstorp 2006; Cannon and Iyekekpolo 2018). This assertion also relates to the Boko Haram<sup>1</sup> terrorist group operating in the northeastern<sup>2</sup> part of Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region in West Africa.<sup>3</sup> Several studies have suggested that after the death of its founding leader,

<sup>1</sup> Most studies on "Boko Haram" refer to it as the radical *Islamic*, *Salafist*, and *Jihadist* terrorist group which operates in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad region of West Africa. The group is driven by anti-Westernism, especially education, labelling it as *forbidden*. It aims to entrench an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria and territories perceived to be under its sphere of influence in line with the principles and dictates of *Sharia Law* (Islamic Law).

<sup>2</sup> In this article, the term is used to explain the five states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe in Nigeria.

<sup>3</sup> The Lake Chad region in this article refers to countries comprising Cameroun, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Mohammed Yusuf, in 20094, the organization regrouped and resurfaced in 2010 and began carrying out a series of coordinated attacks on civilians, places of religious worship, as well as private, public, and state institutions (Maiangwa et al. 2012; Onuoha 2012; Oyewole 2015; Umukoro 2016; Tukur 2017; Felter 2018). These attacks ranged from suicide raids, kidnapping, to the use and deployment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The impact of these attacks led to over 100,000 documented deaths, the destruction of properties amounting to over nine billion US dollars, and the displacement of over 2,400,000 persons across the Lake Chad Basin. This has led to the group being regarded as one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations around the world (China Global Television Network 2017; Matfess 2017; Premium Times 2017a, 2017b; Institute for Economics and Peace 2015, 2017, 2018).

It should be noted that for terrorist organizations to stay relevant and operate e ffectively, the need for regular recruitment of members is an existential reality to ensure their survival (Ranstorp 2006). Campbell (2013), Zenn (2013a, 2013b), Voll (2015), and the UNODC (2017), highlighted four fundamental conditions most terrorist organizations employ to recruit members. These reasons include *Financial Incentives* to lure individuals a ffected by negative structural conditions such as poverty, unemployment, and poor welfare services as easy targets for terrorist organizations. The societal influence of *Kinship*, where individuals who are biologically and socially related with persons a ffiliated to terrorist organizations are conscripted by these groups. The *long history of inter-religious and politically motivated violence influenced by the elites* has not only divided most societies along religious lines, but has also created a level of mutual suspicion across the various religious divides, as witnessed in Nigeria, which makes it easy for groups such as Boko Haram to recruit members. The negative use of *religion as a tool for radicalization and preaching of violent and extreme views by* rogue clerics to indoctrinate individuals into these terrorist organizations. These reasons serve as the optics and framework most studies coalesce around when looking at the strategies used by violent extremist groups to recruit members (Combs 2017; Iyekekpolo 2018).

Although several studies have focused on terrorism and Boko Haram, the understanding of strategies used by terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram to recruit members remains largely under-researched. It is in this context that this article seeks to examine the strategies used by this group to recruit members and also the challenges confronting stakeholders in combating them. It adopts a qualitative research technique through the use of academic, non-academic documents, reports, and personal interviews in the form of key informant interviews (KIIs), with community and religious leaders, academic and policy experts, and individuals a ffected by the activities of Boko Haram. The article seeks to contribute to the growing literature on terrorist recruitment strategy, the role of actors and other relevant stakeholders<sup>5</sup> in combating these strategies and the challenges confronting stakeholders in countering them. In this context, the article asks the following research questions: What are the various Boko Haram recruitment strategies? What are the measures taken by stakeholders to combat Boko Haram's recruitment strategy? What are the challenges confronting stakeholders in confronting them?

The article is structured and organized under the following sub-headings. Following the introduction, the second part of the article clearly outlines the methodology as well as the questions required by the key informants as it pertains Boko Haram recruitment strategies, the contributions by relevant actors in countering these strategies and also the challenges in combating Boko Haram recruitment strategies across Lake Chad. The third section, clarifies and theorizes the concept of terrorist recruitment, reviews the various studies on terrorist recruitment, the methods and strategies used by Boko Haram to recruit members. Measures taken by relevant stakeholders at the national, sub-regional, and regional levels to confront the recruitment and expansion of this terrorist organization forms the fourth part of the study. The fifth part of the article focuses on the challenges confronting actors in

<sup>4</sup> Mohammed Yusuf, the defunct leader, died after a confrontation between the group and the Nigerian security forces

<sup>5</sup> The term actors or relevant stakeholders is used in this article to refer to states and other non-state actors such as sub-regional and regional groups including ECOWAS, LCBC, Civil Societies and Faith-Based Organizations.

combating Boko Haram's recruitment. The sixth part concludes the findings, recommendations, and avenues for further research.
