Notorious Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has been driven out of power and replaced by a new leader, the President of Chad Idriss Deby has claimed.
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Boko Haram has previously launched several attacks in Cameroon, ranging from kidnapping foreigners for ransom to assassinations, robberies, and targeting the Cameroonian military.
But he added: “After the promises of G7 countries to help the region defeat Boko Haram, we are waiting for training, equipment and intelligence assistance”.
Alonge also explained that the fresh deployment was aimed at bolstering the military’s renewed drive to crush the fighting will of the Boko Haram terrorist group under the codename: ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’.
The jihadists have repeatedly extended their northeastern insurgency into border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“It is indeed all over the global media of infidels that I am dead or that I am sick and incapacitated and have lost influence in the affairs of religion”, Shekau said in an eight-minute Hausa-language message, the French news agency AFP (Agence France-Presse) reported.
Analysts say the president hopes this will enable them to have a good handle on what is needed to end the violence.
The position has long been enactment earth to some of Boko Haram’s most violent strikes and the sector has defeated a significant portion of the Nigerian military’s insulting drills.
As the multiple territorial losses of Boko Haram in Nigeria have significantly undermined its image, these suicide attacks may be an attempt to create a perception of strength and to bolster the group’s image as a regional threat.
It is believed the group recently appointed a new leader after Abubakar Shekau failed to appear in the group’s latest propaganda videos, triggering speculation regarding his fate.
These challenges include the activities of Boko Haram terrorists, armed banditry, kidnapping, militancy of various forms to mention a few.
However, two factors are spicing up the normal guessing game that swirls around the leadership of the notoriously opaque group, which has killed thousands of people in its six-year campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.
James Entwistle, the US ambassador to Nigeria, disclosed in an interview with The Punch that the US is ready to ship weapons to Nigeria.
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“I can assure you that these officers are the very best you can get as they are officers of impeccable character because they have assured me that they are going to confront the problem to the best of their abilities”, Monguno said.
