Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks at an unknown location in this still image taken from an undated video released by Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram.
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Meanwhile, the Federal Government has described as cheap propaganda the report that ISIS had appointed a new leader for Boko Haram, saying it was too late to employ such tactics to revive the defeated terrorist organization.
Boko Haram announced in March 2015 that it would pledge allegiance to ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and rename itself the “Islamic State West Africa Province”.
Under the past leadership of Shekau, the group became more radical, and carried out more killings, overtaking ISIL to become the deadliest terrorist organisation in the world. “They exploit the condition of those who are displaced under the raging war, providing them with food and shelter and then Christianizing their children”, al-Barnawi reportedly said.
The man in charge of Nigerian-based Islamic group Boko Haram has denied being ousted.
In fact, Boko Haram has continued to lose much of the territory it had previously acquired to Nigerian officials. “We knew that Boko Haram was divided on a strategic point of view, now their divisions are public”.
“No, I won’t. We can not subject ourselves to people who are in ignorance of all holy books and teachings”, he said in a speech, which was posted on social media.
According to the so called new leader al-Barnawi, there is a western plot to Christianise the region and has accused charities of using their aid.
AP reports that al-Barnawi has claimed Boko Haram will continue to bomb churches and kill Christians.
This division within Boko Haram appears to be the most severe in the groups history, and could result in clashes between foot soldiers as Shekau and al-Banawi vie for power.
Ryan Cummings, director of Signal Risk consultancy, said Shekhau had fallen foul of Isil leaders after attacks on cities like Baga, a north eastern town whose residents were all but wiped out in January 2015.
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Yet hunger and malnutrition rates across the border in Chad, where poverty and desertification have been compounded by Boko Haram violence, are troubling, said Pascal Nshimirimana, Chad program manager for the International Medical Corps (IMC).
