The Washington Post quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on how the abduction of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls has brought Abubakar Shekau, leader of the terrorist group Boko Haram, into the international spotlight:
“He’s isolated, he’s increasingly extremist and he’s delusional enough to think he could bring down the Nigerian state,” said J. Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who wrote a 2012 report called “Boko Haram’s Evolving Threat.”
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Shekau’s threats against the school girls have earned him global headlines and brought in offers of assistance from Britain and the U.S., which the Nigerian government has accepted. Until now, Nigeria had been reluctant to accept foreign help in the fight against Boko Haram, Pham said.
That likely means that while the kidnappings have raised Shekau’s profile, he probably doesn’t have to worry about a drone strike targeting him in the near future, Pham said.