It is time the UN considers Boko Haram a priority - Bakary Sambe

"When the abuses of an organization cause tens of thousands of displaced persons and refugees, massive killings and destabilize border States, it can no longer be considered a strictly Nigerian problem," alarmed Bakary Sambe, teacher-researcher at the Centre for the study of religions at the University of Gaston Berger of Saint - Louis, in an interview with Dakaractu.

According to him, "incursions of Boko Haram in Cameroon, the security challenges that the organization poses to countries like Niger are likely to compromise the principle of sovereignty and cause, medium-term conflict which may exacerbate instability in the region."

For the Coordinator of the Observatory of the radicalism and religious conflicts in Africa (ORCRA) "pre-election context prevailing in Nigeria is fraught with all the uncertainties about the stability of the country and the dangers of a poll at high risk if one knows that even the elections of 2011 was relatively quieter than usual had caused at least 1000 dead".

To add a certain perception within the political class, Nigeria considers the North as rather favourable to the opposition and that supporters of Goodluck Jonathan would not complain unduly, of the destabilization of this region", noted Bakary Sambe to Dakaractu.

The recent attacks on the Tijaniyya sheikhs and the mosque in Kano without counting the manifold exactions against the civilian population are a sign of a resurgence in an international context. For Sambe, "it isn't mere coincidence if at the same time where Al Baghdâdî men claim an Islamic State, Boko Haram proclaims a Caliphate, in the wake of the spectacular actions of the jihadists as Jund al-Khilafa factions".

To Sambe, "the urgency of international mobilisation is no longer discussing if we know the humanitarian crises that already affect the States of Borno and Adamawa with inevitable repercussions in Niger, Cameroon and even beyond. For these reasons and with regard to the consequences of a territorial expansion of the phenomenon, the United Nations has an interest to deal with the Boko Haram issue as a top international priority", concluded Bakary Sambe.