Kidnapping Shows 2 Terror Groups in North Nigeria Al-Qaida's North Africa branch this week claimed the January abduction of a German hostage in north Nigeria, and provided a video of the terrified man begging for his life as men carrying Kalashnikov rifles stood behind him. The claim is a first in northern Nigeria for the group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and signals the rising influence of the group among extremists in Nigeria, as well as the growing threat of terrorism in the nation that also sees rising attacks by the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram. "It's been an escalating threat; it's something of a contagion in terms of the tactics and now the kidnapping," said Jennifer G. Cooke, the director of the Africa program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, of terrorism in the country. The Nigerian government has been slow to respond. Gunmen kidnapped German engineer Edgar Fritz Raupach in January from the north Nigeria city of Kano, where he worked for Dantata & Sawoe Construction Co. Ltd. Police said his abductors took him from a construction site, but offered no other details. This week, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb released a statement claiming they had Raupach, as well as a video showing him disheveled and asking in German and English for his country to help win his freedom. The group, also known by the acronym AQIM, demanded that German officials release Filiz Gelowicz, a German woman convicted last year of supporting a foreign terrorist network. Gelowicz's husband was among a group convicted of plotting unsuccessfully to attack U.S. soldiers and citizens in Germany. The kidnapping of the German represented the first concrete violence in Nigeria directly tied to AQIM, which grew out of organizations fighting the Algerian government in the 1990s. Nigeria's security agencies in the past have said they arrested adherents of the group. However, the group's real impact began to be felt with the rise of Boko Haram, a locally focused Islamist sect that wants to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The sect began gun attacks from the backs of motorcycles, but in the last year has advanced to a string of suicide bombings targeting churches, government buildings and even the United Nations headquarters in the capital Abuja. Analysts believe the rapid change in attacks, including a military-style assault on Kano in January that killed at least 185 people just before the German's kidnapping, shows Boko Haram is receiving some outside instruction or assistance. "I don't think AQIM kidnapped the German citizen, I think they did it through Boko Haram," said Martin Ewi, an analyst with South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. The relationship is a give and take. They have trained Boko Haram militants ... (in) bomb making and suicide terrorism, so they have to give back something. AQIM has purchased hostages before from other groups. It has made an estimated $130 million by kidnapping at least 50 Westerners and holding them for ransom. And north Nigeria remains home to a number of expatriate workers, including Westerners, Indians, Chinese and Lebanese - meaning it could be fertile ground if the group wants to expand its ransom operations into the region.