Boko Haram renames itself Daesh in West Africa

The Daesh militant group may have gained a firm foothold beyond the Middle East and North Africa for the first time, after Nigeria’s Boko Haram adopted the name “Islamic State’s West Africa Province,” The Independent reported on Sunday.

The Nigerian terror group’s leader Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to Daesh last month, but the diffuse organisation had appeared to continue to operate under its official name Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, Arabic for “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad”.

Boko Haram, a nickname for the group meaning “Western education is forbidden”, has been used since the group was formed in 2002 when that was its main focus.

But now propaganda materials shared by Daesh-affiliated social media accounts have dropped both those names, and appear to share the slick production values and brazen style more usually associated with jihadists in Syria and Iraq.