Nigeria’s Boko Haram: Al-Qaeda’s New Friend in Africa?
Nigeria’s Boko Haram: Al-Qaeda’s New Friend in Africa?
ICC Note
Nigeria’s Islamic radical group, Boko Haram, is responsible for killing of Christians, security officials and carrying out several terrorist activities.Now there is growing fear about the group’s alliance with Al-Qaeda.
08/31/2011 Nigeria (The Time)-When a suicide bomber drove into the U.N. building in Abuja’s leafy diplomatic quarter on Friday, detonating his Honda Accord and killing at least 18 people, an Islamist terrorist group that was little known outside Nigeria violently thrust itself onto the international stage.
Until recently, the group Boko Haram has conducted attacks on Nigerian government targets in what most terrorism experts considered an indigenous campaign to further the organization’s aim of installing Islamic law in West Africa’s most volatile country. Friday’s attack now has officials and experts worrying that a branch of al-Qaeda has spread its influence to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and a key supplier of oil for the U.S. and the world market. Though no evidence of a partnership has been established, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the terrorist giant’s arm in northwest Africa, has previously issued statements in support of Boko Haram.
Even before the bombing, U.S. military officials were growing anxious about possible links between Boko and established Islamist terrorist groups. Carter Ham, the U.S. military’s commander of operations in Africa, told the Associated Press on April 17 that multiple unnamed sources indicated that Boko Haram had made contact with operatives from AQIM and with the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab.
“I think it would be the most dangerous thing to happen not only to the Africans, but to us as well,” Ham said. “What is most worrying at present is, at least in my view, a clearly stated intent by Boko Haram and by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to coordinate and synchronize their efforts. I’m not so sure they’re able to do that just yet, but it’s clear to me they have the desire and intent to do that.” Ham also touched on what he said could be a “loose” partnership with al-Shabab, which would mean Boko Haram’s reach extends thousands of miles across the African continent.
A partnership between Boko Haram and AQIM, which operates in close proximity to Nigeria in Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Algeria, could explain the increased sophistication of recent Boko Haram attacks, including the use of Friday’s car bomb. It could also mean an increase in cash flow for Boko Haram, which currently makes most of its money through taxes and by robbing banks throughout the Muslim northern half of the country. Heightened fear about an al-Qaeda link comes as religious tension explodes in already-tense central Nigeria. On Monday, Aug. 29, there were deadly clashes between bands of machete-wielding Christian and Muslim youths in the town of Jos, long a center of violence between northern Muslims and southern Christians.
…
An alliance would have a corresponding benefit for al-Qaeda, which has made the southern expansion of its African operation a priority since Algeria — its former major target — began cracking down on the group in 2008. A partnership with the efficient Boko Haram could perhaps give AQIM a foothold in one of Africa’s most important, volatile countries. “They don’t get as much recognition from international jihad groups because they haven’t really engaged in large-scale operations, and because they haven’t attacked Europe — so many are still suspicious of how effective they are,” Lebovich says. “This would be a way of solidifying their place within al-Qaeda.”
…
But the global terrorism community will now be watching the group’s every move, especially for evidence that it might be morphing into a new branch of a terrorist group that has so far had little impact in non-Arab West Africa. If Nigerian security forces start seeing proterrorism propaganda and Boko Haram operatives working in neighboring countries like Mali and Mauritania, then what is currently fearful speculation would be replaced, Lebovich says, by “concrete evidence of a partnership.” Nasser Weddady, outreach director at the American Islamic Congress, cautions that the speculation is not just idle chatter. Friday’s bombing “is a wake-up call to Nigeria to get its act together.”
…