African News Explained

The US State Department has formally added two Nigerian Islamist groups, Boko Haram and Ansaru, to its list of "foreign terrorist organisations". This designation makes it a crime to provide "material support" to the two groupsand US law enforcement agencies must now block business and financial transactions with Boko Haram and Ansaru, explains Veryan Khan of the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (Trac) in the US.   You can follow Michel Arseneault on Twitter: @miko75011