Boko Haram has no Al-Qaeda links - US

The United States Government has said that Boko Haram is not affiliated to the global terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. President Goodluck Jonathan had during the France security summit on the menace of the insurgent group on Saturday, described the Boko Haram, as the “al Qaeda of West Africa.” The US said although terrorists groups around the world are known to have links, it cautioned that the sect should be treated as its “own terrorist group.” A statement by the US Consulate General in Lagos on Monday quoted the US Under Secretary of
State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, as saying this on the sidelines of the summit hosted by French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Saturday. Sherman who spoke to journalists alongside US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield; and the US State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator, Tina Kaidelow, said UN sanctions on Boko Haram could be as quick as this week. Sherman said, “Boko Haram is its own terrorist group, and the United States has designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. In this day and age, there is probably no terror group that does not have some links somehow, even if tenuous, to some other organization. But for the most part, we treat Boko Haram as its own terror organization. “When you have sanctions at the UN, it does do asset freezes, travel freezes, a variety of things. It depends on how the designation is done. But I imagine this will happen rather quickly. Quite frankly, I can’t imagine any country who would not support this designation.” Sherman added that the US is committed to supporting the Nigerian government in ensuring that the girls are brought back alive. According to him, the abducted schoolgirls have become “the girls of the world, not just of Nigeria” adding that all efforts were being put in place to ensure that the West Africa sub-region is not turned to a breeding ground for terror