Boko Haram pledges allegiance to Islamic State

Chad, Niger launch joint offensive against terrorist group

LONDON/N’DJAMENA/NIAMEY (Reuters) – Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram pledged allegiance on Saturday to Islamic State, according to an audio clip posted online. The symbolic move highlights increased coordination between jihadi movements across north Africa and the Middle East and prompted an appeal from Nigeria’s government for greater international help in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency. On Sunday, Chad and Niger launched a joint army operation against Boko Haram in Nigeria, intensifying a regional offensive designed to defeat the group, military sources said. It is the first incursion deep into Nigeria by troops from Niger, which have so far only fought Boko Haram in the border area. Chad already has sent troops many kilometers inside northeastern Nigeria and has won territory back from the Sunni jihadist group near the Nigeria-Cameroon border. “We can confirm that Chadian and Nigerian forces launched an offensive this morning from Niger. The offensive is underway,” said Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for Chad’s army. Niger military sources said troops were attacking militants from the Islamist group in Nigeria’s Borno State, having entered via the country’s southeastern region near Diffa. One of the sources said Abuja had given the green light for the operation. It was not clear how many troops were participating in the offensive. Boko Haram has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds during its six-year campaign to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria. In recent months, it has increased cross-border raids into Cameroon, Chad and Niger. “We announce our allegiance to the Caliph... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease,” read an English-language translation of the audio broadcast in Arabic that purported to be from the Nigerian militant group. “We call upon Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the Caliph.” The pledge of allegiance was attributed to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. The audio script identified the Caliph as Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Awad al-Qurashi, who is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State and self-proclaimed caliph of the Muslim world. “[The audio] is confirming what we always thought. It’s sad, it’s bad,” said Nigerian government spokesman Mike Omeri. “It’s why we were appealing to the international community... Hopefully the world will wake up to the disaster unfolding here.” Analysts said Boko Haram’s move came as no surprise. “Boko Haram has followed a trend that only led [us] to anticipate the release of this audio, mimicking Islamic State propaganda and approach to military methods, and calling its fighters soldiers of the Caliphate,” said Laith Alkhouri, director of the Middle East and North Africa research and jihadi threat intelligence at Flashpoint Partners. “The Islamic State, unlike al-Qaida, did not seem to shun Shekau, it accepted his thuggish persona and lack of Islamic knowledge.”