The Nigerian Boko Haram terrorist organization has posted a video in which it pledges loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS), which may or may not return the favor.
Boko Haram recently has copied some of the ISIS’s methods, including beheading, but the group simply may be trying to ramp up pressure on the Nigerian government.
The ISIS has become a threat beyond Iraq and Syria. Egypt last month bombed ISIS bases in Libya after the Islamic terrorists murdered nearly a dozen Egyptian Christian Copts.
Boko Haram’s 6000-man force would be an asset for ISIS if it chooses to accept Boko Haram as an ally, but a history of Islamic terrorist crazies is littered with broken agreements because no one wants to yield power.
Reports have surfaced that ISIS attracting young people from Nigeria, which would be a part of the caliphate state imagined by ISIS.
Boko Haram controls territory in northeast Nigeria, which borders Libya.
Jacob Zenn, a Jamestown Foundation expert on Boko Haram, told CNN:
Boko Haram joining the ISIS fold makes sense to both groups. Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands into (French-speaking) West Africa. It will also get guidance from ISIS in media warfare and propaganda. Previously Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS’s biggest affiliate.
ISIS gets more international legitimacy as a global caliphate.
He added that ISIS and Boko Harem last month apparently established a Twitter account that carried the video on Saturday proclaiming the Nigerian’s group loyalty to ISIS.
