Nigeria’s Boko Haram chief lifeless, Islamic State West African Province says

The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) militant group stated in an audio recording heard by Reuters on Sunday that Abubakar Shekau, chief of rival Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram, was lifeless.
Shekau died round May 18 after detonating an explosive system when he was pursued by ISWAP fighters following a battle, an individual purporting to be ISWAP chief Abu Musab al-Barnawi stated on the audio recording.
“Abubakar Shekau, God has judged him by sending him to heaven,” he could be heard saying.
Two folks conversant in al-Barnawi instructed Reuters the voice on the recording was that of the ISWAP chief. A Nigerian intelligence report shared by a authorities official and Boko Haram researchers have additionally stated Shekau is lifeless.
Last month, Nigeria’s navy stated it was investigating Shekau’s alleged demise, additionally reported in Nigerian and international information retailers. The audio assertion, first obtained by native media, is ISWAP’s first affirmation that its arch rival within the Lake Chad area has been killed. Islamic State “are consolidating the whole area, the Lake Chad region and (Shekau’s stronghold),” stated Bulama Bukarti, an analyst specialising in Boko Haram on the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
“ISWAP had framed Shekau as the problem and he was the only person they wanted to remove,” Bukarti stated of Islamic State’s try to lure Boko Haram commanders and fighters to their aspect.
Shekau’s demise may result in the tip of a violent rivalry between the 2 teams, enabling Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) to soak up Boko Haram fighters and consolidate its maintain on territory in northeastern Nigeria, political analysts stated. That would enable ISWAP to focus its consideration on the federal government and navy, whose struggle efforts are languishing.
Boko Haram’s chief was reported to have been killed on a number of events over the past 12 years, together with in bulletins by the navy, solely to later seem in a video put up.
In the audio recording, the person recognized as al-Barnawi stated his fighters had sought out the warlord on the orders of the Islamic State management, and battled Boko Haram insurgents till Shekau fled.
ISWAP chased him down and supplied him the possibility to repent and be a part of them, he stated.
“Shekau preferred to be humiliated in the afterlife than getting humiliated on earth, and he killed himself instantly by detonating an explosive,” he stated.
Boko Haram grabbed headlines worldwide with its 2014 kidnapping of greater than 270 schoolgirls from the city of Chibok, sparking a worldwide marketing campaign for his or her return dubbed #BringBackOurGirls, backed by the likes of Michelle Obama.
Around 100 of the Chibok Girls are nonetheless lacking, and a few are thought to have died in captivity. Shekau led the transformation of Boko Haram from an underground Islamic sect in 2009 to a full-fledged insurgency, killing, kidnapping and looting its manner throughout northeast Nigeria.
The group has killed greater than 30,000 folks, pressured round 2 million folks to flee their properties and spawned one of many world’s worst humanitarian crises.
ISWAP was beforehand a part of Boko Haram earlier than its cut up 5 years in the past, pledging allegiance to Islamic State. The schism was attributable to spiritual ideological disagreements over the killing of civilians by Boko Haram, to which ISWAP objected.