structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:voice_change
Islamist violence

Since the mid-1960s, Maiduguri has witnessed outbreaks of large inter-religious riots with members of religious sects leading intercommunal violence in 1982 and 2001.

On 18 February 2006, riots related to the Muhammad cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten left at least 15 people dead, and resulted in the destruction of approximately 12 churches. Soldiers and police quelled the riots, and the government temporarily imposed a curfew.

In 2002, Muslim cleric Mohammed Yusuf founded the Islamist jihadist group Boko Haram in Maiduguri, establishing a mosque and a madrasa that attracted children from poor Muslim families from both Nigeria and neighboring countries.