This weekend was a difficult one in Nigeria. The leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria, the group that kidnapped more than 200 school girls nearly a year ago, is now purportedly vowing to back the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
That claim was made in a tweet over the weekend that has yet to be verified, but just hours later, Nigeria’s neighbors, Chad and Niger, said they began a ground offensive against the militant Islamist group, too.
NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton is in Nigeria’s main city, Lagos, and tells Here & Now’s Robin Young that all of this is taking place just weeks before scheduled presidential elections in Nigeria.
Guest
- Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, correspondent in Africa for NPR. She tweets @ofeibeaq.
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