Al Qaeda recruited this same Abu Nasir while he was in Khartoum for studies. His recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and later to Mauritania for a rigorous training course by AQIM. For six months, Abu Nasir said, he trained directly under Abu Zeid, who was later killed by Chadian or French forces in the campaign to uproot Islamist militants in northern Mali. He said of five people who came with him from Sudan, two died during training. “Everything the security forces get, we get double that,” he said of Ansaru’s training system.

The jihadist, who attended an Islamic college in Kano before moving to Sudan, said Ansaru had been motivated by al Qaeda itself, trained by its North African affiliate, AQIM, and was following in both their footsteps.

It is this background that has led some analysts to conclude Ansaru is providing the shock troops for AQIM’s attacks on tourists and other foreigners in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the attack in Mali for instance, famous Guinean singer Sekouba “Bambino” Diabate, who was staying in the hotel when the incident occured, said he heard attackers speaking in English “with a Nigerian accent” about their weapons being loaded.

Nigerians speak with a very unique accent different from the rest of Africa, and so it’s relatively easy for anyone who has regularly interacted with a home-grown Nigerian to recognize where he or she comes from, more so for a talented singer like Diabete, who has interacted with a number of Nigerian singers.

A clearer picture is seen in the Burkina Faso attacks. Not long after the operation, AQIM published photographs of three adolescent men said to have carried out the Ouagadougou hits. The militants were given the names Battar al Ansari, Abu Muhammad al Buqali al Ansari, and Ahmed al Fulani al Ansari.

“Al-Ansari” (which originates from the Arabic word, “Ansar,” meaning “supporters”), is the surname of Ansaru’s founder, Abu Usmatul al-Ansari. The name “Ansaru” equally originated from Ansar.

AQIM typically renames its fighters, usually according to the area or unit the militant comes from. Analysts who study AQIM’s operations closely say, predictably, that the group uses al Ansari for fighters from Ansaru to indicate the origins of the “brigade.”

Last year, a 15-year-old boy who was recruited by a militant group in northern Mali, believed to be AQIM, told The Daily Beast that he was given a new name by the jihadists just as he arrived camp. He was named “Abu Bakr Konana.” Some of his colleagues who joined the group at the same time also got the surname “Konana,” which may be the name designated to young men from Mali’s Timbuktu region where the young boys were recruited.

When I asked him if he came in contact with anyone from Nigeria during his time with the militants, Seydou said his colleagues often mocked Abu al Ansari because the Nigerian couldn’t communicate in French or the local Songhay language.

Some evidence of Ansaru’s involvement also exists in the most recent Ivory Coast attacks. A number of witnesses said the killers didn’t speak a word of French, which they mostly likely would have done if they had come from Mali or from the French-speaking countries surrounding it. The gunmen, witnesses said, communicated to their hostages in English and Arabic, languages spoken comfortably by Ansaru militants.

“They don’t like to talk about what they’ve done,” says Ushie Michael, noting that the group has taken direct responsibility for only a handful of gun attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria. “They prefer to work, while AQIM does the talking. It is AQIM that pays, not the other way round.”

Together, they are playing the long game.

Philip Obaji Jr. is the founder of 1 GAME, an advocacy and campaigning organization that fights for the right to education for disadvantaged children in Nigeria, especially in northeastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram forbids western education. Follow him@PhilipObaji

*Culled from The Daily Beast