Investigators track Boko Haram funding

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Islamic Boko Haram extremists received funding from al-Qaida-linked groups as well as organizations based in Britain and Saudi Arabia, officials say.

The Nigerian Tribune of Lagos reported the country's State Security Service had worked with local and international agencies in tracking funding to Boko Haram.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden," has received funding from al-Qaida-linked organizations based in the Middle East as well as a Britain-based organization known as Al-Muntada Trust Fund, sources told the Tribune.

Sources said Boko Haram's links to al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb had paved the way for funding from groups in the United Kingdom and in Saudi Arabia, including the Islamic World Society.

"The group [Boko Haram] is originally fashioned after the [Taliban] in Afghanistan and it intended to replicate the Afghan situation across Nigeria," the source said.

That explains why one of Boko Haram's original bases in the Yobe State had been named Afghanistan before the base's demolition in 2004, the source said.

Attacks by Boko Haram have killed more than 2,000 people in northern Nigeria, Vanguard has reported.