The Islamic-State affiliated West African terror group Boko Haram has a new leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the IS announced in one of its magazines.
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“People should know we are still around”.
His death led to an uprising that left 20,000 people dead and 2.6 million fleeing their homes.
A screenshot taken on July 13, 2014 from a video released by the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram shows Abubakar Shekau at the center.
Shekau, in the 10-minute 23-second audio message in Arabic and Hausa said he was deceived, but he will never stray from the ideology of the Jama’atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da’awati wal-Jihad which he said had a basis in the Quran.
“In the message, Shekau refers to Boko Haram under its previous name, but with some ISIS propaganda elements, as if he wanted to reassure its old combattants and base, without denying his commitment to (its leader Abu Bakr) al-Bagdadi”, he said.
The report does not say what Shekau’s current status is.
“Boko Haram has lost much of its territory to regional forces from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and the Niger Republic, so the security forces believe that this is a sign of Boko Haram trying to be relevant in the scheme of things”, he said.
But critics of the government have claimed that President Buhari is not doing enough to deal with the threat posed by Boko Haram as he rashly pursues his anti-corruption campaign, which many say is aimed at his political opponents. Little is known of Barnawi, who was interviewed in the Islamic State newsletter, Al Naba, which made no mention of Shekau’s fate.
“What they are doing is to seek relevance and to tell the world that they are still around whereas they have been decimated”, he told the Nigerian News Agency.
That assessment came days after US officials said they had seen no evidence that Boko Haram had so far received significant operational support or financing from ISIS militants, concluding the loyalty pledge had so far mostly been a branding exercise.
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The message was Shekau’s first public pronouncement in a year, and suggests ideological differences within the Boko Haram hierarchy.
