Boko Haram leaders vowed their formal allegiance to IS in an audio message in Arabic posted to Twitter last month, according to intelligence analysts. The militant group has launched murderous rampages across northeastern Nigeria, and into neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger. In an attack April 7, Islamist extremists disguised themselves as preachers and killed at least 24 people in Nigeria’s Borno state.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has condemned the attack and is calling for a multinational strategy to fight the group.
“Boko Haram is probably the most lethal Islamic extremist group in the world,” said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.
Experts worry the attacks are part of a rising trend by the group to target Christians and other non-Muslims as it works to gain control of territories in West Africa.
“That is the strategy of Boko Haram,” according to David Curry, head of non-profit Open Doors USA which works with Christian refugees around the world. “These attacks are escalating...”