Justice in Four Days. A War That’s Lasted 17 Years.

Nigeria’s federal court system did something this week it has rarely managed in nearly two decades of Boko Haram insurgency: it delivered verdicts. Nearly 400 of them.

Of 508 cases brought before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi announced 386 convictions — just 10 discharged or acquitted, with more trials scheduled. Sentences ranged from five years to life. For the families of the estimated tens of thousands killed since the northeastern insurgency erupted, it was the closest thing to accountability many had ever seen.