...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...offshoot, are employing their growing power and influence to establish a "jihadist proto-state" in northern Nigeria, a non-governmental organization (NGO) reported this week.
In 2016, Boko Haram split from ISWAP over leadership differences. Unlike Boko Haram, ISWAP has cultivated support among local civilians, allowing the terrorist group to turn the neglected communities into a source of economic aid.
On Thursday, the International Crisis Group (ICG), an NGO committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflicts, reported:
Three years after Boko Haram broke apart [in 2016], one faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, is forming a proto-state in northern Nigeria. The state should press its military offensive against the jihadists but also try undercutting their appeal by improving governance and public services.
The crisis in north-eastern Nigeria is about more than the military balance of power, as underscored by the support ISWAP has won by creating a proto-state providing a measure of governance and services. If the Lake Chad states hope to dislodge the group and prevent its expansion, they therefore will have to do more than challenge ISWAP in battle. To make inroads, authorities will need to demonstrate that they can fill gaps in governance and service provision in areas of weaker ISWAP influence.
The Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIS) West African wing is reportedly growing stronger and expanding its influence across northern Nigeria, ICG noted, adding:
ISWAP poses a particular challenge to the Lake Chad states because it represents more than aggressive fighters, rumbling pickups with mounted guns or proclamations of the caliphate’s rebirth. It is filling a gap left by decades of poor governance and neglect in the region. It has cultivated stronger ties with local residents than Boko Haram ever could by helping recover lost cattle, settling disputes over grazing and fishing rights, fending off rustlers, providing care to expectant mothers in rural areas, and imposing swift if terrible justice upon criminals, sometimes including when they are ISWAP members.
ISWAP is often cruel and arbitrary, even with civilians whose support it ostensibly seeks to gain. But for now, in the eyes of many locals, what it has to offer is often better than what came before.
Despite the growing threat at the hands of ISWAP, Boko Haram appears to remain the most prolific and deadliest group, having killed 20,000 people in the past nine years ending in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.
It revealed that the situation of the region as a result of the decade-old crisis led to increased frequency of disease outbreaks.
ISWAP is expanding across Africa’s Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
as well, where jihadi groups like al-Qaeda have been affiliated with Latin American narco mobs seeking to move narcotics into Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...and beyond.