A 2010 screen grab of a video reportedly released by Nigeria's Boko Haram shows alleged members gathered in an undisclosed location
A suicide bomber drove into the U.N. building in Abuja's leafy diplomatic quarter on Friday, detonating his Honda Accord and killing at least 18 people, an Islamist terrorist group that was little known outside Nigeria violently thrust itself onto the international stage.
Until recently, the group Boko Haram has conducted attacks on Nigerian government targets in what most terrorism experts considered an indigenous campaign to further the organization's aim of installing Islamic law in West Africa's most volatile country. Friday's attack now has officials and experts worrying that a branch of al-Qaeda has spread its influence to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and a key supplier of oil for the U.S. and the world market. Though no evidence of a partnership has been established, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the terrorist giant's arm in northwest Africa, has previously issued statements in support of Boko Haram. (See a photo gallery of the bombing in Nigeria.)
Even before the bombing, U.S. military officials were growing anxious about possible links between Boko and established Islamist terrorist groups. Carter Ham, the U.S. military's commander of operations in Africa, told the Associated Press on April 17 that multiple unnamed sources indicated that Boko Haram had made contact with operatives from AQIM and with the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab.
Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown
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