ISIS 'accepts Boko Haram loyalty'
NEWS DESK (DİHA) - In an audio message purportedly from an ISIS spokesman, the group announced that a pledge of allegiance from Nigerian-based Boko Haram has been accepted by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The message says that the ISIS has expanded to western Africa and congratulated "our jihadi brothers" there. The spokesman, Abu Mohammed al Adnani, encourages people to join fighters in Africa if they cannot make it to Iraq or Syria. Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, announced in an audio message last week that the Islamist terror group was going to ally with ISIS.
Previously Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS's biggest affiliate. Boko Haram, whose name translates as "Western education is sin," has been waging a yearslong campaign of terror aimed at instituting its extreme version of Sharia law. Boko Haram's tactics have intensified in recent years, from battling Nigerian government soldiers to acts disproportionately affecting civilians -- such as raids on villages, mass kidnappings, assassinations, market bombings and attacks on churches and unaffiliated mosques.
Much of this violence has taken place in Nigeria. But neighboring countries, such as Cameroon and Chad, have also been hit increasingly hard.
(nt)
