Embattled leader of the degraded Boko Haram insurgent group, Abubakar Shekau, has re-asserted his leadership role of the group.
Advertisement
He called on Nigerian security forces to do their utmost to crush both Shekau and Al-Barnawi, adding that “we must do everything peacefully and we must not allow these butchers to provoke us into another civil war”.
Human rights group Amnesty International said till past year 8,000 men and boys had died in Nigerian military custody after being detained as suspected militants.
In the interview in IS’s weekly Arabic magazine al-Naba, Mr Barnawi said his group “remained a force to be reckoned with” and said it had been drawing new recruits.
“They strongly seek to Christianize the society”.
And a Nigerian security analyst said he believed Shekau was still alive, but that ISIL may be seeking to clean up Boko Haram’s reputation among extremists by ousting a leader seen as disorganised and unreliable.
Unconfirmed local reports suggest that fighting has already broken out between militants loyal to al-Banarwi and those allied to Shekau, says Al Amin.
ISIS had on Wednesday named Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new leader of the Boko Haram Sect in Nigeria.
In an interview published by the ISIL newspaper Al Nabaa on Wednesday, Barnawi, the ISIL appointee, threatened to bomb churches and kill Christians while ending attacks on mosques and markets used by Muslims.
In a story August 3 about Boko Haram’s new leader, The Associated Press erroneously quoted analyst Jacob Zenn as saying that Abu Musab al-Barnawi is a journalist.
Two of the purported leaders of Boko Haram are apparently pitted against each other in a power struggle within Islamic State’s west African affiliate.
The Federal Government yesterday dismissed as inconsequential the appointment of a new leader for Boko Haram by the Islamic State (IS).
“So whether there is a change in leadership or not, we are sure of total annihilation of the group”.
“As far as we are concerned, what Boko Haram or their cohorts are doing is of no relevance to our operations against them”.
Advertisement
Boko Haram has been weakened by an aggressive fightback from the Nigerian military that began in January 2014, losing territory and its capacity to mount conventional attacks.
