Cameroon's claims this week that
two Tuareg fighters were among the dead
when troops bombarded Boko Haram
positions have sparked fresh interest in
the group's links to the wider jihadi
network.
Communication minister Issa Tchiroma
Bakary did not elaborate on the
nationality of the foreigners, who were
among the more than 100 dead during an
attempted cross-border incursion at the
weekend.
But with the Tuareg people found in Mali
and Algeria, which are both home to
Islamist groups, the claim is coming under
close examination.
Boko Haram was designated an al-Qaeda-
linked terror group earlier this year while
its recent land grab in Nigeria's northeast
has prompted comparisons to Islamic State
militants in Syria and Iraq.
Analysts remain sceptical, though, about
the extent of its direct operational links
with outside groups, despite claims that
some fighters were trained in Mali and
arms are smuggled from Libya.
Allowances
Security sources in Maiduguri, northeast
Nigeria, say Boko Haram has for some
time encouraged mercenaries from
neighbouring countries such as Chad, Niger
and Cameroon.
"These fighters are paid allowances after
every raid, which ranges between 50 000
naira ($300) and 150 000 naira for each
fighter," the source told AFP in a recent
interview.
Others said the recruitment was to be
expected, given the increase in violence
this year that has left thousands dead
and prompted hundreds of thousands of
civilians to flee.
"It will not be surprising at this stage,"
said security analyst Abdullahi Bawa Wase.
"The enlargement of the original Boko
Haram with mercenaries and criminal and
political elements is not in doubt."
Kyari Mohammed, a Boko Haram specialist
from the Centre for Peace Studies in
Yola, Adamawa state, said he, too, was not
surprised at the arrival of foreign
fighters.
History of violence
But he questioned how many foreign guns-
for-hire had been recruited into Boko
Haram's ranks, which according to one
recent estimate numbered between 6,000
and 8,000 in total.
"When you are fighting this kind of war
you expect the influx of mercenaries,
especially in this region where we have
porous borders and a history of violence,"
he said.
"There could be infiltration of mercenaries
across these borders but not on a huge
scale."
'Al-Qaeda in west Africa'?
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has
described Boko Haram as "al-Qaeda in
west Africa" and has been keen to play up
a regional dimension to the five-year
insurgency.
Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh has
said weapons recovered during operations
were "very alien to Nigerian armed
forces, which means there are people
from outside fuelling this thing".
"I know that people from outside Nigeria
are in this war. They are fighting us," he
said earlier this year.
Humanitarian crisis
But some analysts see Nigeria's position
as a way of deflecting criticism its own
role in transforming a largely peaceful
domestic anti-corruption movement into a
heavily armed terror group.
Boko Haram gained a higher international
profile in April this year when it abducted
more than 200 schoolgirls from the
remote northeastern town of Chibok.
The United States said last week that it
was concerned by its capture of a
succession of towns and the potential for
a humanitarian crisis.
Despite that, security experts say the
conflict remains largely an internal
domestic issue and that Boko Haram has
localised aims.
Others point out that forced conscription
of young men from across Nigeria's
borders could also explain the presence of
foreign nationals to boost Boko Haram's
depleted ranks.
In Cameroon, young men from towns and
villages near the Nigerian border have
been conscripted with inducements of
motorcycles and 150 000 naira in cash as a
"signing-on fee", the security source in
Maiduguri added.
Police in Cameroon's impoverished far
north region confirmed to AFP in August
that hundreds of young people had been
forced to fight.
"Children from Kolofata were conscripted,
drugged, manipulated and sent against
their own city," one police officer said.

not only foreign fighter, bt foreign countries r providing support

hope d Chad visit of gej will achieve positive results