US officials on Thursday said “there is no evidence that Boko Haram has received significant operational support or financing from Islamic State (IS)”.
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in Washington, said more than a year after the group’s pledge of allegiance, it has no link with IS.
He added that after Boko Haram killed more than two dozen soldiers in Niger last week, it claimed the attack in the name of Islamic State-West Africa Province, a title meant to tell the world that it was an arm of the Syria-based extremist group.
The official suggested that Boko Haram’s loyalty pledge had so far mostly been a branding exercise designed to boost its international Jihadi credentials, attract recruits and appeal to the IS leadership for assistance.
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He said the US view of Boko Haram, which won global infamy for its 2014 kidnapping of 276 school girls, as a locally-focused, homegrown insurgency likely to keep the group more to the margins of the US fight against Islamic State in Africa.
The official said US military’s attention was largely centred on Libya, home to Islamic State’s strongest affiliate outside the Middle East and where the US carried out air strikes.
He said “no such direct US intervention is currently being contemplated against Boko Haram.”
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“If there is no meaningful connection between ISIL and Boko Haram and we haven’t found one so far, then there are no grounds for US military involvement in West Africa other than assistance and training,” he said.
Another official referred to it as an African fight and US could only assist.
The official said “it is not American fight, rather, it is an African fight and we can assist them, but it’s their fight.”
A senior US official said securities were closely watching for any increased threat to Americans from Boko Haram and any confirmation of media reports of deepening ties with IS.
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He said “in spite of suffering a series of setbacks, Boko Haram remains lethal.”
“It launched its deadliest raid in over a year last week, killing 30 soldiers and forcing 50,000 people to flee when it took over the Niger town of Bosso last week.”
The official added that the military action against ISIL in Iraq and Syria was conducted under legislation Congress passed after the September 11, 2001, attacks and authorised the use of American military power against “those responsible for” those attacks.
He noted that the Obama administration had interpreted it and included Islamic state as third-generation descendent of Osama bin Laden’s core al-Qaeda group, but not Boko Haram.
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He said the security intelligence report about Boko Haram acknowledged that its internal structure and leadership was imperfect.
Another US official viewed Shekau’s pledge of allegiance to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “primarily as a rebranding exercise.”
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He said the exercise was aimed at boosting the stature of his group, whose leaders previously said it was aligned with al-Qaeda.
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2 comments
Interesting explanation, but we cannot have it both ways. President Obama himself described Boko Haram as a brutal terrorist group. I am sure he must have done his homework before he made that statement.
According to this explanation one can only understand it to mean that in as much as a terrorist group is attacking other people including abduction of hundreds of school children in other places but not attacking America, we can afford to wave them down as local grown insurgency. Of cause nobody is asking for a direct American involvement in the fight against Boko Haram, but if the activities and scale of operation as well as the modus operandi of Boko Haram equates that of other terrorist groups like ISIL, why should Boko Haram then not fit into being officially classified as a terrorist organisation irrespective of who they are terrorising?
On the other hand since we now know with all certainty, according to this report that Boko Haram is a home grown insurgency, the identities of those who grew them could also be of interest. It may also be of interest to them to notice that according to the Nigerian president, a good number of Libyans trained by Gadhafi who dispersed after his downfall have now found their way into Boko Haram and so on and are currently unleashing mayhem on different parts of Nigeria and other places as Fulani Herdsmen Militia unattended to.
Yeah, i support your analysis absolutely. The veils of the sponsors of Boko Haram can be lifted and exposed by this American intelligence analysis if they really and sincerely want to help Nigeria.