Boko Haram pledges allegiance to Islamic State

Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to a video posted online by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.

The pledge was made in an audio recording posted on the group’s twitter page on Saturday, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring service. The video is yet to be independently verified.

“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims ... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” SITE quoted Boko Haram as saying in a video purporting to be from the Nigerian rebel group.

The video script identified the caliph as Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Awad al-Qurashi, who is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL, which controls large swaths of territories in Iraq and Syria.

Baghdadi has already accepted pledges of allegiance from other armed groups in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north Africa.

Boko Haram has been waging a six-year military campaign to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Boko Haram expert Aliyu Musa said: “It's not the first time Abubakar Shekau has done this - remember, when they started taking parts of Nigeria last year, he did proclaim support for ISIL.”

“We've always know that they have connections with al-Qaeda and al-Shabab and others, but now the government should be more aware they are connecting with violent groups around the world,” Boko Haram expert Aliysu Musa said

On Saturday, three bomb blasts killed at least 51 people in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in the worst attacks there since Boko Haram fighters tried to seize the town in two major assaults earlier this year.

Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan said the tide has “definitely turned” against militant Islamists as Nigerian troops and their regional allies recapture territory.

Boko Haram has recently launched attacks on villages in Cameroon and Niger, as Nigeria’s neighbours are forming a multinational force to confront the spreading Islamist uprising. In April, the group drew worldwide condemnation after it kidnapped 270 girls from a school in the Nigerian Northeast region.