Boko Haram is probably beyond the reach of global sanctions but attempts to curb the Nigerian Islamists' reign of terror is an indication of growing international commitment, analysts said.
The UN Security Council this week designated the extremist group as an Al-Qaeda-linked organisation, cementing long-held suspicions of its ties to militants in the global jihadi movement.
But with sanctions designed to cut off overseas funding and support for Boko Haram, which kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month, there are doubts about what impact they might have on the ground.
"Boko Haram has for several years now existed beyond the formal parameters where an arms embargo or asset-freeze would affect the group," Jacob Zenn, from the Jamestown Foundation think-tank in the United States, told AFP.
"Its funding comes from kidnappings-for-ransom, which are already illegal, and also non-state actors like AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) and likely state actors that avoid the global financial system to transfer money...
"Arms come from raiding Nigerian armories or smuggling networks, such as those from Libya via the Tuareg region of Mali," he said in an email exchange.
Omoyele Sowore of Nigeria's Sahara Reporters website told BBC radio on Friday that Boko Haram was different from global extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda in terms of structure and funding.
"Boko Haram commanders and their leaders do not travel with passports, they travel on the ground in hijacked vehicles; they don't have any formal assets that anyone can point to -- it is not a formal organisation," he said.
'A bigger player' -
The United States and several Western countries have previously blacklisted Boko Haram but that has done little to stop the cycle of violence which, if anything, has increased this year.