95 North and West Africa comprise a region of vast and sparsely populated territories covering some of the most rugged landscapes on earth. Its geographic complexities pose numerous challenges to governance and the extension of security. As an operating environment for both state security forces and terrorist groups, it presents urban and desert terrain that puts intelligence collection and logistics to the test. For the region’s under-resourced governments, lasting counterterrorism ofensives have often relied on political suppression and brutality rather than security operations integrated with comprehensive law enforcement, develop- ment, and political co-optation. The most prominent terrorist groups operating in North and West Africa today are historical products of domestic insurgencies in Algeria and Nigeria. Algeria’s violent anti-secular Salafst Group for Preach- ing and Combat (GSPC) later rebranded itself to become al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Nigeria’s Boko Haram evolved from a fringe sect of religious radicals to a full-blown militant organization attacking the legitimacy of the Nigerian state. Yet neither AQIM nor Boko Haram has ever focused primarily on confrontation with the West. To a great degree, the causes and conduct of these two groups have been largely independent phenomena, with little to suggest that AQIM and Boko Haram will join forces in the future. To better understand AQIM and Boko Haram today, this chapter examines their roots, the political conditions that motivated their historical and contemporary manifestations, and how regional governments—in particular Algeria and Nigeria—have acted to combat them. From the party to the guerrilla: Algeria and the rise of violent political Islamism Although not all extremists in West Africa have their roots in Algerian domestic politics, Algeria’s history of tension between secularism and Islamism casts a long shadow over political violence in the region. Having lost the fght over the religiosity of the Algerian state, Islamist factions have proven tenacious, adaptive, and migratory, spreading into the broader region without ever abandoning hope for a theocratic Algeria. In response, the Algerian government has tried a variety of strategies to defeat their Islamist opponents, from suppression to amnesty to a regional policy designed to crush terrorism at home and abroad. Foundational to its history is Algeria’s experience as a French colony, when repression of Islamic insti- tutions and cultural practices helped to galvanize a defant sense of Muslim identity. 1  Independence led to 7 THE ROOTS OF TERRORISM IN NORTH AND WEST AFRICA AQIM and Boko Haram Alice Hunt Friend DOI: 10.4324/9781003164500-8