Boko Haram: Shekau Reappears In New Video, Says ‘the End Has Come For Him’

BEVERLY HILLS, March 24, (THEWILL) – For the first time in more than a year, leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau on Thursday appeared on a new video recording devoid of the defiant bluster, taunts and denunciation of political leaders of previous videos.

In the seven-minute message where he looked subdued and spoke as if admitting defeat, the dejected-looking Shekau  debunked rumours about his death but declared that “for me the end has come”.

Speaking in the Hausa language, he said: “This is a message of greeting and joy for you to see my face,” said Shekau, who in March 2015 pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in an audio message.

“This is my desire: that whoever sees this will hear nothing but greetings between me and you. Only Allah knows the rest, as you believed (and) as you submitted. For me the end has come.”

“This is only the message I want to send to you for you to understand that this is certainly I. This is why I did this.”

“May Allah protect us so that no hypocrite stands between us. May Allah protect us from the devil so that he doesn't achieve his evil among us.”

“May Allah protect us and may we stand firm on the path of Allah. I thank my creator.”

Meanwhile, unlike previous well-edited recordings from the Islamic sect released towards the end of 2014 and the start of 2015, the new video was poorly shot with a thin-looking Shekau spotting a military fatigue with a rifle resting on his left shoulder.

The Boko Haram leader spoke to his followers in the video posted on YouTube in front of a lime green background, with the sect’s black flag superimposed in crude graphics.