ISIS can claim another achievement, as the Nigeria-based Boko Haram terror organization has caved in and joined its ranks.

Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based Islamic terror organization, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), according to an audio message ostensibly from Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.

In the clip, which was posted online Saturday, the speaker says in Arabic: “We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Husseini al-Qurashi…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.” Al-Qurashi is another name for ISIS’ self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In doing so, Boko Haram is following the Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis terror group, which pledged allegiance to ISIS in November.

This is the latest phase in ISIS’s expansion across the Middle East and Africa, after gaining territory in Libya and advancing further into Syria towards Lebanon. Boko Haram itself declared an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria, following ISIS’ lead.

Jacob Zenn of the Jamestown Foundation, terrorism expert and author of Northern Nigeria’s Boko Haram: The Prize in al-Qaeda’s Africa Strategy, told CNN:

“Boko Haram joining the ISIS fold makes sense to both groups. Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands into [French-speaking] West Africa. It will also get guidance from ISIS in media warfare and propaganda. Previously, Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS’s biggest affiliate.”

Speaking from Abuja, Nigeria, Zenn added that the allegiance will be official when an ISIS leader, such as spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani, issues a statement.

Islamic Terror Expands

Boko Haram, whose name translates as “Western education is sin,” has been waging a long campaign of terror since 2002 aimed at instituting its extreme version of Muslim Sharia law in the region.

Boko Haram’s tactics have intensified in recent years, from battling Nigerian government soldiers to conducting raids on villages, mass kidnappings, abductions, suicide bombings and attacks on churches, Christians and unaffiliated mosques.

Much of this violence has taken place in Nigeria, but neighboring countries, such as Cameroon and Chad, have also been hit hard.

The pledge of allegiance to ISIS was posted on Twitter, hours after Boko Haram was blamed for four suicide bomb attacks in northeastern Nigeria that killed at least 54 people and wounded more than 140.

By: United with Israel Staff