Strike ‘fatally wounds’ Boko Haram leader
LAGOS: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is believed to have been fatally wounded in an air strike while he was praying in a forest stronghold in northeast Nigeria, the military said yesterday.
A statement does not say how the military got the information but it identifies other commanders as “confirmed dead”.
Nigerian security forces have at least three times in the past declared that they have killed or fatally wounded Shekau, only to have him resurface in video and audio recordings. The military has said in the past that Boko Haram was using lookalike fighters to impersonate the supposedly dead leader.
The strikes came in “the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid” carried out by the Nigerian Air Force while Shekau was praying on Friday, Islam’s sabbath day, at Taye village in the extremists’ Sambisa Forest holdout in northeast Nigeria, according to the statement signed by army spokesman Col Sani Kukasheka Usman.
“Those Boko Haram terrorist commanders confirmed dead include Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others. While their leader, socalled ‘Abubakar Shekau’, is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders. Several other terrorists were also wounded,” he said.
The statement comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with President Muhammadu Buhari, on a visit to discuss Islamic extremism and regional security.
Shekau started the uprising in 2009 that has killed 20,000 people and driven more than 2.2 million from their homes.