Nigerian: Boko Haram leader wounded
NAIROBI, Kenya — Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said Sunday that the military wounded the leader of Boko Haram, his country’s homegrown Islamic extremist group.
Nigeria’s military said last week that it had “fatally wounded” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in an airstrike, but it stopped short of saying he was dead.
Boko Haram no longer holds any Nigerian territory, and the group has split into small groups attacking soft targets, said Buhari on Sunday.
The Nigerian government is ready to discuss the release of the Chibok girls held hostage by Boko Haram, Buhari said in a statement from his spokesman. Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, is where nearly 300 schoolgirls were abducted from a school in April 2014. Dozens of the kidnapped girls escaped, but 218 remain missing.
The government is ready to negotiate with “bona fide leaders” of the terror group who know where the girls are, Buhari said.