The Nigerian terrorist group and sworn ISIS affiliate Boko Haram is now broadcasting on FM radio to spread their propaganda through vulnerable border regions in West Africa.
The Hausa-language Voice of America reported that residents in northern Cameroon reported finding not music but Boko Haram PR when they tuned into 96.8 FM. It’s believed to have been on the air since early this month.
The station broadcasts recruiting materials as well as counters official government reports of victories against the terrorists in Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria.
Cameroonian officials have reportedly begun searching for Boko Haram’s radio station in the border region with Nigeria.
Terror groups utilize radio particularly to reach out to smaller villages where they have a chance of recruitment. Radio Andalus outside Mogadishu broadcasts Al-Shabaab content and also puts the terror group’s content on a website. ISIS broadcasts on Al-Bayan 92.5 FM out of occupied Mosul.
CIA Director John Brennan noted in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last week Boko Haram’s new official name: Islamic State of West Africa, “where you have several thousands of individuals who are also on the march waving the ISIL banner.”
Brennan called a “threat” the “instability in a number of countries in the Middle East and Africa, and the lack of governance capabilities within these countries, so that they are unable to tackle the political, the economic, the societal, the cultural challenges.”
“And I am really worried about how instability is going to continue to erode and corrode some of the foundations of governance, and how more and more individuals, because of their feelings of being disenfranchised from their governments, are now identifying with sub- national groups, whether it be with an ISIL, or a Nusra, or Boko Haram or others. They’re not identifying themselves as Somalis, Nigerians or Yemenis. They’re identifying themselves as part of a confessional group, or a terrorist organization,” he said.
“That is a very, very disturbing trend that I believe that this country can play a role in trying to help address. We cannot solve it on our own.”
Deaths and injuries from Boko Haram attacks jumped 190 percent in 2015. Over the same period, the Nigeria-based terror group’s use of suicide bombers rose 167 percent.
In April, Boko Haram reinforced their yearlong pledge of allegiance to ISIS, urging self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to have “steadfastness, steadfastness, and patience, patience” to achieve victory.
“The enemies of Allah the Almighty hold conferences and meetings to come up with a solution for the hole into which they fell, thinking that they can rescue their proxies and allies from the assault of the soldiers of the Caliphate,” a masked speaker said in that video.
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