The Washington Post quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on the true threat of Boko Haram and their ability to be just as dangerous as ISIS in Africa:
“The literally fatal conceit of all too many policymakers and analysts with respect to Boko Haram is to constantly underestimate it,” warned J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. “This despite the fact that the group has repeatedly proven itself to be one of the most resilient of its kind and has constantly shifted not only in terms of tactics and operations, but also strategy and, indeed, ideology.”
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The Atlantic Council’s Pham posits a more worrying scenario: Perhaps Boko Haram actually poses a bigger threat to the world than the Islamic State, which at the least is hemmed in by powerful states like Israel, Turkey and Iran. “Just because the group has not yet shown the capability to launch an assault on targets in the West,” he adds, “does not mean that it doesn’t aspire to do so should the opportunity present itself.”