The Role of the European Union in Mediating the Boko Haram Crisis in North-East Nigeria

This study examines the role of the European Union (EU) in mediating and providing humanitarian support during the Boko Haram insurgency in North-East Nigeria, with particular focus on Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states. The insurgency, which escalated significantly from 2009, has drawn considerable international attention and prompted varied responses from global actors. While much scholarship has centred on military and domestic political responses, the diplomatic and developmental contributions of the EU remain underexplored in Nigerian academic literature. This research adopts a descriptive case study approach, drawing on publicly available EU mission reports, Nigerian government policy documents, and secondary literature published between 2019 and 2024. The study investigates how EU-funded programmes have addressed displacement, food insecurity, and post-conflict reconstruction in the affected states. Preliminary observations suggest that while the EU has committed substantial financial resources to the Lake Chad Basin crisis, coordination gaps between EU delegations and local non-governmental organisations have limited effective service delivery. The research further assesses how EU diplomatic communications have influenced Nigeria's counter-terrorism posture at the multilateral level. Findings from this study are expected to contribute to undergraduate-level understanding of Europe-Africa security cooperation and to highlight opportunities for more targeted EU engagement in the North-East sub-region. Keywords: European Union, Boko Haram, North-East Nigeria, humanitarian intervention, security cooperation.