Nigeria’s Boko Haram Pledges Allegiance to Islamic State

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Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agreed that if the pledge was real, Boko Haram most likely had some extra motivation.

“There is almost certainly money involved in the deal,” he said.

There has been some evidence that despite a decline in revenues, the Islamic State group has been throwing money around in hopes of countering losses on the ground in Iraq.

“Islamic State has been trying to show that it has momentum by luring more affiliates,” Gartenstein-Ross said. “They have a business model that requires them to maintain the perception of momentum.”

What Boko Haram gains from a pledge, other than the possible infusion of money, is less certain.

“They lose quite a bit or risk losing quite a bit from the pledge,” Gartenstein-Ross said, especially as Boko Haram had been benefiting from ties to two al-Qaida linked groups, AQIM and al-Shabab in Somalia.

“Presumably, this pledge means it’s going to lose that network of support,” he said.
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