NPR quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on Boko Haram reportedly swearing its allegiance to ISIS and what it means for its future:
In an interview with NPR earlier this week, J. Peter Pham, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, noted the “convergence” of Islamist extremist groups over the past year.
“[Not] necessarily evidence of command and control or direct coordination, but shout-outs to each other,” he said.
Pham told NPR that the U.S. should be concerned with Boko Haram’s flirtation with Islamic State.
“With Boko Haram, the danger is to use the past to analyze the present, much less to predict the future,” he told Ofeibea. “This is a group that has shown its ability to evolve at an almost dizzying pace … and its leadership has shown a great flexibility in ideology and methods, depending on who they choose to align with.”