Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram group reportedly pledged formal allegiance to the Islamic State group.
he pledge to IS came in an Arabic audio message with English subtitles alleged to have come from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and posted on Saturday on Twitter, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring service.
“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims ... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” said the message. IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has declared himself the caliph.
The Boko Haram pledge to IS comes as the Nigerian militants reportedly are massing in the northeastern town of Gwoza, considered their headquarters, for a showdown with the Chadian-led multinational force.
Though there was no way to independently verify the message, it comes weeks after Boko Haram’s new Twitter account broadcast that the group’s Shura council was considering whether to swear formal allegiance to IS.
The Twitter account, increasingly slick and more frequent video messages from Boko Haram, and a new media arm all are considered signs that the group is being helped by IS propagandists.
