“Abubakar Shekau” fatally wounded”, the Nigerian Army wrote on its Twitter account.
Advertisement
The Nigerian army has said ‘so called Abubakar Shekau, ‘ the Boko Haram leader was fatally wounded in a recent air strike in Sambisa forest.
Nigeria’s air force said it had killed some senior Boko Haram militants and believed it had fatally wounded the group’s leader in a raid on the Islamists’ northeast heartland.
The Boko Haram wing of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has reportedly executed 10 people and abducted 13 others, including women and children, during a raid on a village near the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state, where the African terrorist group kidnapped almost 276 schoolgirls more than two years ago.
Shekau was the leader of Boko Haram before ISIS, “appointed” Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new leader of the sect.
He also said terrorism is not static and Nigeria’s response must therefore be dynamic and versatile.
Through a year ago, the Nigerian military announced the rescue of hundreds of people who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram, but despite occasional reports to the contrary, the Chibok girls were not among them. Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, is where almost 300 schoolgirls were abducted from a school in April 2014.
Shekau started the uprising in 2009 that has killed about 20,000 people and driven more than 2.2 million from their homes.
An attack by suspected Boko Haram members have left about 11 people dead in Kuburvwa village of Borno State. Authorities said in May that one of the missing girls had been found and Buhari vowed to rescue the others.
She urged Nigeria’s government to meet Boko Haram’s demand to release militants in exchange for Dorcas’ freedom and that of her fellow abductees.
Advertisement
Spokesperson for the army, Colonel Usman, released a statement saying that an airstrike had been carried out on Friday, hitting a number of key Boko Haram figures while they were praying. Shekau has insisted he is still in charge.
