In April 2017, Al-Andalus jihadist media institution, which belongs to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), published a booklet that was written by Abu al-Hasan Rashid al-Bulaydi, a former member of the organization’s Shura Council,[1] in 2011 about how to wage jihad in Nigeria. It seems that the timing of the publication of the booklet was tied to the decline of the Islamic State (IS) in the wake of its defeats in Iraq, Libya and Syria, and the desire to prompt jihadists in Nigeria to disillusion from their mistaken path and understand that the key to correcting the current situation lies in their willingness to accept the guidance of AQIM as before.

 

Al-Bulaydi’s booklet, titled, “Advice and Guidance for Jihad Fighters in Nigeria” includes 67 pages that can be divided into two sections:

The first section includes correspondence between Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, and the AQIM leadership against the backdrop of bloody attacks against Muslims in northern Nigeria in 2009, during which the founder and former leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed.[2] The second section includes the final letter from al-Bulaydi to jihad fighters in Nigeria in which he gives them advice on how to wage jihad in their country.