The shocking news from northern Nigeria that Boko Haram extremists have burnt scores of children to death among 86 people killed just outside Maiduguri, the largest city in the north east, bears the terrible trade mark of Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), which has used ever more bizarre and disgusting ways to kill its enemies. It does so in the full knowledge that its use of terror in this way forces the population to take sides through fear that the same fate might easily befall them if they do not sign up and support the terrorists.
Boko Haram has suffered major setbacks since new Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took office, and it has lost territorial control of large areas. But that does not mean that Boko Haram is finished. It simply means that it has gone underground and it will continue to terrorise the people of northern Nigeria as it seeks to spread its message across the lightly governed states of sub-Saharan Africa, looking to gain advantage where it can. It is working with Daesh to build a new terrorist state across national borders in places where conventional armies find hard to reach such as Mali, Niger and Mauritania.
If Boko Haram and Daesh succeed in this aim, as Daesh has in Iraq and Syria for now, they would gain possession of a large and highly strategic base from which to attach the Arab states in north Africa and menace Europe with great effect. This is why the struggle against Boko Haram in northern Nigeria is not some local problem, but part of the global battle against terror.
