Shekau has also not appeared in Boko Haram propaganda videos since March, which triggered speculation that he might have been killed.
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An image grab made on October 31, 2014, from a video obtained by Agence France-Presse shows the leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau (C) delivering a speech.
Chad’s President Idriss Deby said on Tuesday the regional offensive had crushed Boko Haram and it would be finished as a fighting force by the end of the year.
There is no doubt that Nigeria’s security infrastructure could inflict serious damage on the jihadists infrastructure and with the assistance of other relevant stakeholders; drive Boko Haram underground. In 2014 alone, 42 percent of all attacks by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria were on Christian communities, while 35.4 percent targeted random civilians, according to the Jubilee Campaign for global religious freedom.
It pledged allegiance this year to Islamic State, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.
“The new deployment is aimed at boosting existing military efforts to defeat the Boko Haram Terrorists”.
He said Boko Haram’s new leader was “someone apparently called Mahamat Daoud”, who was open to talks.
Shakau took over leadership of the Sunni Muslim terrorist group in 2009 after its founder, Muhammad Yusuf, died in police custody.
The military has not said when the attacks occurred.
It is unknown which Nigerian army units will get the equipment, but the report said that the US government had confirmed that deliveries were pending.
“Three persons including the suicide bomber died on the spot”.
But taunting both the Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari and Chad in his message, Shekau said: “Gratitude be to Allah and with his help, I have not disappeared”.
Noakes sees a coup within Boko Haram’s ranks as “plausible”, however, pointing to numerous potential sources of a schism in the group, including over its failure to hold onto territory. The Nigerian military had claimed to have killed Shekau in a series of battles near Maiduguri, Nigeria a month earlier.
“If it has happened then it could mean a number of things”.
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And second, Deby has identified a successor.
