Leadership Nigeria covers at Atlantic Council event on the security situation in Nigeria and quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on the events leading up to the Boko Haram-ISIS alliance:

peaking at a meeting organised by the Atlantic Council in Washington DC on an update on Nigeria’s security and general elections during the week, Oke noted that a joint military offensive by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger against the Boko Haram sect had driven the militants from many of their strongholds in northeastern Nigeria.

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Speaking earlier, director of the Atlantic Council African Centre, Dr Peter Pham, said the pledge by Boko Haram leader to the ISIS was not entirely unexpected due to recent pressure on the group from the military of Nigeria and its neighbours.

“In fact, the ‘shout-outs’ exchanged regularly between Boko Haram and ISIS were not just rhetorical flourishe but indicative of a veritable courtship as the former appropriated more and more of the latter’s symbolism, tactics and ideology,” Pham added.

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