BEIRUT (AP) — The spokesman for Islamic State militants said
Thursday that the extremist group has accepted the pledge of allegiance
by West Africa's Boko Haram group.
In an audio recording released by the group's media arm Al-Furqan, Abu
Mohammed al-Adnani claimed the pledge of allegiance meant that the
caliphate has now expanded to West Africa.
The recording was released a few days after an audio recording from Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Sheka posted online Saturday in which he pledged
allegiance to IS.
Al-Adnani also urged foreign fighters from around the world to migrate and join Boko Haram.
Boko Haram killed an estimated 10,000 people last year, and it is blamed
for last April's abduction of more than 275 schoolgirls.
In August, Boko Haram followed the lead of IS in declaring an Islamic
caliphate in northeast Nigeria that grew to cover an area the size of
Belgium. The Islamic State had declared a caliphate in vast swaths of
territory that it controls in Iraq and Syria.
Boko Haram is waging a nearly 6-year insurgency to impose Muslim Shariah
law in Nigeria. It began launching attacks across the border into
Cameroon earlier this year, and then struck in Niger and Chad.
Members of the U.N. Security Council proposed Thursday that the
international community supply money, equipment, troops and intelligence
to a five-nation African force fighting Boko Haram.
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