{There are signs that Nigeria\u2019s Boko Haram jihadists are sending fighters to join Isis in Libya, and of increased cooperation between the two groups, a senior US official said on Friday.}<\/p>\n
Nigeria has asked the US to sell it aircraft to fight Boko Haram, which has been waging a seven-year insurgency in the north and last year pledged loyalty to Isis, which is active in Syria, Iraq and Libya.<\/p>\n
Related: Boko Haram is losing ground \u2013 but will not be defeated by weapons alone | Vincent Foucher<\/p>\n
Little is known about the extent of cooperation between the two radical Islamist groups. But western governments worry Isis\u2019s growing presence in north Africa and ties with Boko Haram could herald a push south into the vast, lawless Sahel region and create a springboard for wider attacks.<\/p>\n
US deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken said there were \u201creports\u201d Boko Haram fighters were going to Libya, where Isis has established a large presence, taking advantage of security chaos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that Boko Haram\u2019s ability to communicate has become more effective. They seem to have benefited from assistance from Daesh,\u201d he said, using a derogatory name for Isis. There were also reports of material and logistical aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo these are all elements that suggests that there are more contacts and more cooperation, and this is again something that we are looking at very carefully because we want to cut it off,\u201d Blinken told reporters in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Blinken said the US was helping Nigeria in its fight against Boko Haram with armoured vehicles. But he declined to comment on a request by the west African nation to sell it aircraft.<\/p>\n
Related: Boko Haram using loans to recruit members in face of crackdown<\/p>\n
US officials said this month Washington wants to sell up to 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria in recognition of president Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s army reforms. Congress needs to approve the deal.<\/p>\n
Under Buhari\u2019s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, the US blocked arms sales, partly due to human rights concerns.<\/p>\n
Blinken said Nigeria made several requests for military hardware. \u201cWe are looking very actively at these requests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s foreign minister Geoffrey Onyeama earlier said the government had set up reporting mechanisms inside the military to monitor human rights which should convince Congress to approve the sale.<\/p>\n
Blinken said the military under Buhari had made \u201cimportant efforts\u201d to address human rights but the US was \u201ctroubled\u201d by an Amnesty International report this week saying children were dying in military detention.<\/p>\n
The army rejected the report.<\/p>\n
Blinken said Washington was also concerned about an alleged army massacre of Shi\u2019ites in northern Nigeria in December, during which hundreds were killed, according to residents.<\/p>\n
He said a state commission to investigate the killings should provide a \u201ctransparent and credible report\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{There are signs that Nigeria\u2019s Boko Haram jihadists are sending fighters to join Isis in Libya, and of increased cooperation between the two groups, a senior US official said on Friday.} Nigeria has asked the US to sell it aircraft to fight Boko Haram, which has been waging a seven-year insurgency in the north and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[234],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-the-guardian"],"bylines":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"contributors":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25336"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25336"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}