A statement sent at about 1am said leader of a faction of the terrorists group who recently claimed possession of the Chibok girls, Abubakar Shekau, was seriously injured in the Air Force bombardment.
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Boko Haram is pledged to Islamic State group “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the group is sometimes referred to as Islamic State West Africa Province.
Pilots of the Nigerian Air Force have been urged to sustain intensive air operations and cooperate with land army in the battle to rid Nigeria of Boko Haram insurgents. “But extremism can’t be defeated through repression or fear”, he said. Since the wee hours of today, when the Nigerian Army announced that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau (maybe with nine lives) has been “fatally wounded”, there have been questions raised as to if Nigerians are not in for the repeat of the same claim made by the military three years ago, that it “mortally wounded” Shekau which eventually led to his death. While their leader, so-called ‘Abubakar Shekau, ‘ is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders.
Meanwhile, a mob in northern Nigeria has killed eight people after torching the house of a man who tried to save a Christian student accused of blasphemy, police said Tuesday.
The military said an “unprecedented and spectacular air raid” had hit the militants as they were performing Friday prayers in the sprawling Sambisa forest, the main base for a jihadist insurgency that is estimated to have left some 20,000 people dead and one million homeless.
The U.S.is now considering the sale of attack aircraft to Nigeria, which is subject to review by Congress. In May, U.S. officials told Reuters that Washington wanted to sell up to 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria in recognition of Buhari’s reform of the country’s army.
But the new administration argues its human rights record has improved significantly enough to lift the blockade.
But Kerry also stressed the need to respect human rights in the crackdown against the militant group. The US Congress has yet to approve the sale, however.
“The former leaders of the defunct Sokoto Caliphate and others like the late Sir Ahmadu Bello had stood by the virtues of peace, unity and tolerance”, he said.
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Mr. Kerry made no reference to the agreement Tuesday but praised the Buhari government for making “a terrific start – a strong start at all levels of government” by “working with civil society to encourage official transparency and accountability”. “Values that the terrorists don’t just ignore, my friends, but values that they desecrate and try to destroy at every turn that they can”.
