WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The insurgency of Islamist militants Boko Haram is responsible for the deaths of at least 11,000 people, a scholarly report says.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., relied on media reports to build a database of incidents and death counts, and estimated 7,000 people were killed in the year ending June 2013. Authors of the study -- Nathaniel Allen, Peter M. Lewis and Hilary Matfess -- conclude the casualty rate in Nigeria is higher than in conflicts in Afghanistan, Ukraine or Iraq.
Nearly 30,000 Nigerians have been killed since 1998 in ethnic, political, religious of economically-motivated violence, suggests their analysis, the Nigeria Social Violence Dataset.
"For the moment, Boko Haram is a network with local foundations and goals, but the rising scale of conflict belies the easy dismissals of some observers. This is clearly the most lethal conflict that Nigeria has confronted in decades. It is being fought on a scale that is comparable to serious civil strife in other parts of the world," the authors wrote Tuesday in the Washington Post, noting the violence in Nigeria is now spilling into neighboring countries.
