Abubakar Shekau, the embattled leader of Boko Haram, in a new video released on Sunday, August 7, 2016, has vowed to fight on, shrugging off an apparent split in the group.
Abubakar Shekau speaks in a new video
Shekau, in a new 24-minute video, ridiculed suggestions that he was dead, and looked more composed and energetic than in previous appearances.
In the new video he was seen wearing camouflage gear and holding a machine gun, standing between two Islamist fighters in balaclavas armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers (anti-air).
NAIJ.com has gathered nine shocking facts about the new Shekau’s video:
1. The embattled leader of Boko Haram said: “We have no desire to fight our Muslim brethren.”
2. Shekau said he is alive by the permission of Allah, adding that he would only die when his time came.
3. He taunted President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and condemned Western countries including the United States, France, Germany and the tyrants of the “United Nonsense” (UN).
4. He was seen holding a machine gun, standing between two Islamist fighters in balaclavas.
5. According to Ahmad Salkida, this is likely Shekau’s first verified video in nearly two years.
6. The video also shows hundreds of Boko Haram fighters, probably in Sambisa forest, though it is impossible to verify location and the time of capturing the clip.
7. “We will not follow Abu Musab [al-Barnawi],” says a spokesman to the terrorist group, standing in front of hundreds of well-kitted fighters. “We will only believe Baghdadi if we hear directly from him, but the wire removing Shekau is doubtful.”
8. Abubakar Shekau appears in the middle of the video, speaking in Arabic first.
9. The leader of Boko Haram refers to himself as the Imam of Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Li Dawati wal Jihad (full name of the Boko Haram group), not as Wali of Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP).
At the end of Shekau’s speech he was seen lifting a heavy machine gun and firing off rounds of ammunition into the air.
Shekau’s absence in recent months had sparked speculation about his fate and whether he had been deposed as the Boko Haram’s chief.
Nigeria’s terrorist #1 became the leader of the jihadist group after Nigerian security forces killed the group’s founding chief Mohammed Yusuf in 2009.
Omar Mahmood, a security analyst with US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute who has spent the past five years researching Boko Haram, said Shekau was removed because of his highhandness and ruthlessness.
“By contrast, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the man announced as the new leader, clearly stated in his al-Naba interview that attacks against Muslim civilians, mosques and markets will not be a staple of his leadership.” Mahmood said.
Boko Haram has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacing more than 2.6 million people since it launched a brutal insurgency in Nigeria in 2009.
Nigerian forces, with the support of regional troops, have recaptured swathes of territory lost to the jihadists since they launched a military campaign in February 2014.
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