than 80 of its members to join forces with the ISIS extremists
fighting in Libya, an agency report said yesterday.
Boko Haram insurgents are also suspected to be fighting in Niger
Republic in what is being interpreted as the strengthening of its ties
with the Islamic State Group.
The sect pledged allegiance to IS's in March. In June BOko Haram was
declared its West African province.
About two weeks ago,two young Nigerians from Kano were arrested in
India as they made to cross into Pakistan at the border of both
countries.
Their destination was Iraq where ISIS is waging a war against the authorities.
Similarly, the Lebanese authorities on August 15 arrested hard-line
IS's cleric Ahmad al-Assir at Beirut airport while attempting to fly
to Nigeria on a forged Palestinian passport with a Nigerian visa.
The development has sparked a security alert in the country with
President Muhammadu Buhari ordering an investigation into how the
Nigerian Embassy issued al-Assir the visa.
The Sentinel magazine of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation in
an article estimated that between 80 and 200 Boko Haram fighters are
currently in the Libyan city of Sirte.
It also said that Algerian security forces believe that Boko Haram
fighters have joined other militants in northern Niger.
"The openness of migration routes from Nigeria through eastern Niger
to Libya makes travel … fairly straightforward, and the Islamic State
can easily afford to pay smugglers to carry militants (and weapons)
along that route," it said.
The Nigeria Immigration Service claimed to have barred 23,472 people
from leaving the country between January 2014 and March 2015.
"There have been reports in recent times of some Nigerians departing
to join terrorist groups especially in the Middle East and North
Africa," said PR Nigeria, which publishes government news.
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