US to name Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

 A U.S. official says the State Department intends to designate a Nigerian Islamist militant group as a foreign terrorist organization on Wednesday.

Boko Haram is an Islamist group that wants to impose Islamic law across northern Nigeria.

Boko Haram, which has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the past four years, and other splinter Islamist groups are seen as the biggest security threat in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and top oil exporter.