Boko Haram leader Shekau resurfaces in video after claims by the Nigerian army he had been seriously wounded

This screen grab image taken on September 25, 2016 from a video released on Youtube by Islamist group Boko Haram shows Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau making a statement at an undisclosed location.

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) – 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 appeared to be in good physical health.

He used 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 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.

But many experts say he is not a spent force.

“He has more fighters than either al-Barnawi or Nur, especially from the Kanuri ethnic group around Lake Chad,” said Jacob Zenn from the Jameston Foundation and an expert on the conflict.

But Zenn said many of Shekau’s backers in the IS were now dead and the embattled leader “may therefore have few supporters in IS ranks to argue for his reinstatement over al-Barnawi.”

“Shekau is therefore most likely to remain independent in the near future, which could mean that there will be no limits to a more indiscriminate killing campaign,” Zenn said.

“This could garner Shekau greater attention as compensation for on-the-ground losses and resource deficiencies.”

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.

Nigeria’s President Buhari says Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau ‘wounded’

Abuja (AFP) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Sunday that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is “wounded”, in his first comments on military claims that the jihadi leader was injured in an attack.

Nigeria’s armed forces said on Tuesday that Shekau had been wounded in an air strike on Boko Haram’s forest stronghold, but released no further statement or evidence confirming his condition.

“We learnt that in an air strike by the Nigeria Air Force he was wounded,” Buhari said in a statement from Nairobi, where he is attending a development conference.

“Indeed their top hierarchy and lower cadre have a problem,” Buhari said. “They are not holding any territory and they have split to small groups attacking soft targets.”

Buhari said that Shekau had been “edged out” of the group, adding credence to claims that Islamic State (IS)-appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi was now in charge of the insurgency.

Signs of a power struggle in the top echelons of the jihadi group appeared earlier this month when Shekau released a video denying he had been ousted.

Barnawi is believed to be the 22-year-old son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf and was announced as the group’s leader in August by IS.

Buhari made his remarks from Nairobi this weekend where he is attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a summit designed to boost ties between Africa and Japan.

The president also said he “is prepared to talk to bona fide leaders of Boko Haram” to negotiate the release of 218 Chibok girls captured by the militants in 2014.

Boko Haram has ravaged northeast Nigeria in its quest to create a fundamentalist Islamic state, killing over 20,000 people and displacing 2.6 million from their homes.

Turning to another major security concern in Nigeria, Buhari threatened militants sabotaging oil infrastructure in the southern swamplands of the Niger delta.

“We will deal with them as we dealt with Boko Haram if they refuse to talk to us,” Buhari said.

The country’s petroleum minister has said that as a result of the ongoing attacks Nigeria’s oil output has dropped 23 per cent from last year to 1.5 million barrels per day, according to Bloomberg News.

Groups including the Niger Delta Avengers are demanding a greater share of oil revenues, political autonomy, and infrastructure development in the southern riverlands where despite massive oil wealth people still struggle to access basic health care and education.

Buhari said his government was in talks with the some of the militants but said there was no “ceasefire”, despite an announcement by the Avengers last week.

Boko Haram Leader Is Wounded in Airstrike, Nigeria’s Military Says

DAKAR, Senegal — The Nigerian military said on Tuesday that airstrikes had killed and wounded several top Boko Haram commanders in the Sambisa Forest in the country’s northeast, where militants have been hiding for months.

Among the wounded was Abubakar Shekau, who took the helm of the group after the death of its founder in 2009, according to Col. Sani Usman, a military spokesman. The military’s attack took place on Friday.

At least three other top commanders were killed in “the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid,” the military said in a news release.

The military has claimed to have killed Mr. Shekau before. Leaders of the militant group are thought to be holed up deep in the forest, and any reports of deaths or injuries to commanders were impossible to independently confirm.

The Nigerian military has been stepping up its offensive against Boko Haram even as the group appears to be fracturing. Mr. Shekau has taken to YouTube in recent weeks to air a theological spat with Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who had previously been described as a spokesman for Boko Haram, over whether the group should refrain from targeting fellow Muslims with suicide bombings and other acts of violence. A recent issue of an Islamic State magazine ran an interview with Mr. Barnawi, in which it called him its “governor” for West Africa and made no mention of Mr. Shekau.

Mr. Barnawi is apparently leading an Islamic State-endorsed faction of Boko Haram. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State last year.

During a visit to Nigeria on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a veiled warning to Nigeria’s military against committing human rights abuses as it goes about battling Boko Haram.

Nigeria’s military has been dogged by reports that, in its aggressive hunt to defeat Boko Haram, its soldiers kill civilians, torture prisoners and subject former captives or people fleeing militants to lengthy detention while trying to determine whether they are sympathizers.

Mr. Kerry dedicated much of his speech to urging Nigeria to prioritize employment and education for young people so they do not join groups like Boko Haram. He assailed Boko Haram’s “nihilistic view of the world.”

“They actually teach girls how to hold a bomb under their armpits so that the explosives remain steady. They show teenagers how to use swords to decapitate,” Mr. Kerry said.

“We might as well ask how anyone could be brainwashed into such atrocities, but because the children are so young and because the abuse that they suffer is so great, even brave souls can be broken.”

Tuesday’s announcement follows a claim this month from Boko Haram, which released a video purporting to show the bodies of several girls who were kidnapped two years ago from a school in Chibok. A fighter who appears in the video says the girls were killed in Nigerian airstrikes on the forest.

The Chibok episode is the most high-profile hostage taking to date by the group. More than 250 girls were taken from Chibok, prompting a social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls. So far, only one has been rescued.

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