The AP quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on how Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance to ISIS could internationalize the crisis in Nigeria:

But “over time this pledge of allegiance might lead to the internationalization” of a threat that until now has been mostly confined to a single region of Nigeria with occasional spillover into neighboring countries, warned J. Peter Pham, director of the Washington-based Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

[…]

A partnership with IS could also be a recruiting tool. Fighters from IS franchises in North Africa who find it harder to migrate to the Middle East may choose to move to a Boko Haram emirate instead, Pham said.

The international support pouring into anti-Boko Haram forces from the United States, France, theUnited Kingdom and others “may render the Nigerian militants’ fight all the more attractive to these foreign jihadists,” Pham said.

Read the full article here.

Related Experts: J. Peter Pham