Boko Haram strengthens ties with ISIS

Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremists are strengthening ties with the Islamic State (ISIS) group, as shown by reports that Nigerian militants are fighting in libya, recent arrests in lebanon and India and the blocking of thousands of suspected extremists from leaving Nigeria.Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS in March and in June was declared its West African province. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the insurgency since President Muhammad Buhari was elected in March and pledged to halt the 6-year-old Islamic uprising blamed for the deaths of some 20,000.

An estimated 80 to 200 Boko Haram fighters are in the libyan city of Sirte, according to Nigeria analyst Jacob Zenn, in The Sentinel magazine of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.Algerian security forces believe Boko Haram fighters have joined other militants in northern Niger, he wrote.“The openness of migration routes from Nigeria through eastern Niger to libya makes travel ... Fairly straightforward, and the Islamic State can easily afford to pay smugglers to carry militants (and weapons) along that route,” wrote Zenn.Further evidence of Boko Haram’s links with IS is the arrest on August 15 by lebanese authorities of hard-line ISIS cleric Ahmad al-Assir at Beirut airport.