Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau broke his silence on Thursday to insist he was “still around” following reports that ISIL had replaced him, with his message fuelling talk of a split within the group.
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The confusion appears to have arisen from the latest edition of IS’ online weekly magazine Al-Naba, in which there was an interview with Barnawi when he was named as Boko Haram’s new leader.
Al-Barnawi promised not to attack mosques or markets used by Muslims, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing an Islamic State newspaper.
Shekau in March 2015 pledged allegiance to Baghdadi and gave IS its first franchise in sub-Saharan Africa. It has remained uncertain, however, what if any contact the two groups have actually had, with Boko Haram acting wildly different from the rest of ISIS, and no real reports of direct ties with the caliphate. Mohammed Yusuf was captured and executed after a clash with Nigerian security forces in 2009.
“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.
Over the past seven years, the group has killed more than 20,000 people and drove more than 2.2 million from their homes, and still stages suicide bombings in northeast Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
The Security analyst urged all Nigerians and opposing politicians to support the Federal Government in the fight against Boko Haram and ISIS.
In his 10-minute-long message he said he was deceived, but will never stray away from the ideology of his group.
The new “Wali” said fresh attacks will be carried out by “booby-trapping and blowing up every church” that the group is able to reach, and “killing all of those (Christians) who we find from the citizens of the cross”.
But original Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, speculated by some to be dead, now contests that appointment. Counterterrorism operations, set in motion by President Muhamadu Buhari, have succeded in reducing the number of Boko Haram attacks in the country.
He said that some in Boko Haram had stopped him communicating with al-Baghdadi.
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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.
