Demonstrators hold signs while chanting for the release of the Nigerian schoolgirls in Chibok who were kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, outside of United Nations headquarters in New York, May 22, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
(Reuters) - The kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls last month has sparked global outrage, launched an international manhunt and instantly turned an obscure West African militant group into a household name in the United States. And it has raised a central question: Does the rapidly growing number of al Qaeda splinter groups pose as much of a threat as al Qaeda itself?
Over the last five years, al Qaeda has atomized, according to experts. As drone strikes and other attacks weakened the core, small, largely autonomous groups inspired by Osama bin Laden’s ideology are emerging, becoming self-financing and, in some cases, growing more radicalised than the parent itself.
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