Nigerian IS affiliate issues execution video
>>DAKAR: An affiliate of Islamic State (IS) in Nigeria has claimed responsibility for the execution of 11 people, saying the killings were in retaliation for the death of the IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria in October.
A video released on Thursday showed members of the Nigerian affiliate slashing the throats of 10 people and shooting an additional person. A voice-over says the killings are a “message for Christians” and that all of those killed were Christian, although Nigerian experts said some of them were probably Muslims.
The IS has lost all of the territories it once held in Iraq and Syria, but it remains a threat even after al-Baghdadi was killed in a US raid on his hideout in northwestern Syria.
In addition to the affiliate located in Nigeria, which is known as the IS West Africa Province, there are groups in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Sinai and the Sahel, a stretch of land south of the Sahara, that also claim allegiance to the group.
The members of the IS West Africa Province, also known as ISWAP, left the Islamic militant group Boko Haram in 2016. According to the International Crisis Group, it has between 3,500 and 5,000 fighters.
Its leaders split from Boko Haram in part because they disapproved of the violence that the group and its harsh leader, Abubakar Shekau, has meted out to Muslims. The executions could herald a possible return to the harsher methods of Boko Haram, according to experts.
Author Abdulbasit Kassim said other IS provinces had released videos of revenge for the killing of al-Baghdadi. Kassim said there was a strong possibility that ISWAP was under pressure to do the same.
“I think there’s a demand from IS Central: ‘ISWAP, where is your submission for revenge for Baghdadi?’” said Kassim, referring to the main body of the IS.
He added he believed ISWAP was making two types of propaganda, one aimed at obtaining ransoms from the Nigerian government, and one to satisfy IS demands.
The video was released to Ahmad Salkida, a Nigerian journalist who often publishes information about both ISWAP and Boko Haram.