.” “It’s very significant.”

“The unpredictability of attacks under this framework illustrates ISWAP’s growing strategic sophistication,” Samuel said.External support from IS in Iraq and Syria is also a critical resource, said Samuel, who has interviewed ex-fighters. Such support is evident in ISWAP’s evolving tactics, including nighttime raids, rapid assaults with light but effective weaponry and the use of modified commercial drones to drop explosives, Samuel said.

Ali Abani, a local nonprofit worker familiar with military operations in Borno’s strategic town of Dikwa, said army bases are understaffed and located in remote areas, making them vulnerable to attacks.“When these gunmen come, they just overpower the soldiers,” Abani said.Reinforcements, in the form of air support or nearby ground troops, are often too slow to arrive, allowing militants time to strip the outposts of weapons needed to bolster their arsenal, he added, recalling a May 12 attack during which soldiers fled as they were outnumbered, leaving the extremists to cart away weaponry.

There also have been reports of former militants who continued to work as informants and logistics handlers after claiming to have repented.At its peak in 2013 and 2014, Boko Haram gained global notoriety after kidnapping

While it has lost much of that territory because of military campaigns, the new surge in Boko Haram attacks has raised fears about a possible return to the gloomy past.

Borno Gov. Babagana Zulum warned recently of lost gains after raising concerns that military formations in the state are being dislodged “almost on a daily basis without confrontation.”But Medcalf noted that with most of her patients in recent years, microcheating involves texting or messages on social media. And it can be a slippery slope.

As relationship norms evolve and terms like “polyamory” come out of the shadows, liking or commenting on a photo may seem fairly innocuous. Many couples don’t care, Medcalf said, but people who do shouldn’t feel bad for it.“There isn’t a right and wrong in relationships,” she said. “It comes down to preferences.”

Even if a specific action has not been discussed and forbidden, trouble arises when it takes away energy from your primary relationship, she said.“It’s cheating if your partner doesn’t like it, or doesn’t know about it, or wouldn’t like it if they knew about it,” she said.