I am Alive And In Good Health-Boko Haram Leader, Shekau In New Video
The embattled leader of jihadist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau,
resurfaced in a video posted online Sunday , rejecting assertions by the
Nigerian army that he had been seriously wounded.
“You have been spreading in the social media that you injured or killed
me,” Shekau said in the 40-minute video released on Youtube and dated
September 25.
“Oh tyrants, I’m in a happy state, in good health and in safety.”
The Nigerian army said on August 23 that the longtime militant chief had
been seriously wounded in the shoulder in an air raid in which several
commanders were killed.
Nigerian authorities have reported him dead several times before, but the
army’s latest claim was bolstered when Boko Haram — which pledged
allegiance last year to the Islamic State (IS) group — released a video
on September 13 without Shekau in it.
However, in the video released Sunday , Shekau points to a date on an
Islamic calendar corresponding to September 25, 2016 .
Speaking in Hausa, Arabic and English and in dialects spoken in northeast
Nigeria he appears to be in good physical health.
He uses the video to issue threats against President Muhammadu Buhari, who
appealed to the United Nations this week for help in negotiating the
release of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the militants more than two
years ago.
“If you want your girls, bring back our brethren,” Shekau says.
– Power struggle –
Boko Haram, which has killed at least 20,000 people since 2009 in its
quest for a hardline Islamist state in northeast Nigeria, has been in the
grip of a power struggle since late last year.
Last month, IS high command said Shekau had been replaced as leader by Abu
Musab al-Barnawi, the 22-year-old son of Boko Haram’s founder Mohammed
Yusuf.
But the shadowy Shekau has maintained he is still in charge.
The first signs of a rift appeared after Shekau pledged allegiance to IS
in March 2015 and changed Boko Haram’s name to Islamic State West Africa
Province (ISWAP).
Clashes have since been reported between rival Boko Haram factions in
Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, near Lake Chad.
Barnawi, once a protege of Shekau, has criticised his former mentor for
his indiscriminate killing of civilians — most of them fellow Muslims.
He had also criticised the brutal leadership style of Shekau, alleging he
has secretly killed top militant commanders who disagreed with him.
Security analysts have said the split could indicate a shift in focus by
the pro-Barnawi faction away from targeting crowded marketplaces and
mosques to hitting military and government targets.
Along with the tens of thousands killed, Boko Haram has also made more
than 2.8 million people homeless, fleeing attacks on villages by
ransacking militants in a conflict that has spilled over Nigeria’s borders
into Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
But it was the mass kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the northeastern
town of Chibok in July 2015 that brought unprecedented attention to Boko
Haram, sparking a global campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls”.
Nigerian soldiers, with the support of regional troops, have recaptured
swathes of territory lost to the jihadists since they launched a military
campaign in February 2014.
Oil-rich Nigeria is facing security threats on multiple fronts: Boko Haram
in the northeast, ethnic violence in the central region, Biafran
separatists in the southeast and militants attacking oil infrastructure in
the south.
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