In a statement released Tuesday, the military says the airstrike “fatally wounded” Shekau but does not provide further details.
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The army first said in 2013 that it had killed the leader of the sect.
Nigeria’s Borno State has recently confirmed receipt of a cash donation of $1 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Nigerian troops of excessive force and extra-judicial killings of suspected Boko Haram insurgents, hundreds of Shiite Muslims and pro-Biafra protestors.
About 40,000 households were targeted to benefit from the ongoing humanitarian relief efforts.
Barnawi’s appointment was contained in a magazine issued by the Islamic State group, to which Boko Haram pledged allegiance in March a year ago.
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.
In the meeting with Buhari at the sprawling presidential villa, Kerry promised to look at ways to ramp up military cooperation with Nigeria to “bring this fight to a close”, the State Department official said, adding that the militant group no longer held any territory in the north.
“We advice him to go and read the history of the emergence of Boko Haram so that he will be saved from going before his fellow lawyers and engaging in this macabre dance”, he said.
Troops on Operation Lafiya Dole stationed at Darul Jamel, on the fringes of Sambisa Forest in northern parts of Borno State, have repelled an attempted attack on their location by Boko Haram terrorists.
Steering clear of any potential embarrassment, Kerry made no mention of the claim that Shekau – Boko Haram’s leader since 2009 – had been wounded and did not take questions from the press.
Moreover, even though the Islamic extremist group leader was pronounced dead, his fighters attacked a village Chibok in northeastern Nigeria, where nearly 300 schoolgirls were abducted from their school in 2014, on Saturday killing ten people and taking 13 women and girls hostage.
Shekau appeared to have weathered an attack of a different sort in recent weeks: to his authority.
The 270 Chibok girls were kidnapped from their schools in April of 2014.
Nigerian officials have been pushing for Washington to sell them aircraft to expand the fight.
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Islamic State, to which Boko Haram pledged allegiance a year ago, declared he was no longer the leader of their west African franchise, putting a former spokesman in his place.
