Nigeria: the army announces the death of the local chief of IS
The leader of the Nigerian jihadist group Iswap, affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, died, said a senior Nigerian army on Thursday.
The Iswap (Islamic State in West Africa) has not confirmed the death of al-Barnawi.
"I can say with certainty that Al-Barnawi is dead," the chief of staff, General Lucky Irabor said before journalists, said before journalists.
He did not specify the circumstances of the death of the jihadist leader, already given for death by the Nigerian authorities in the past.
The Iswap was born in 2016 from a split with the other Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, to which he notably criticizes murders of Muslim civilians.
After gaining momentum, the Iswap has become the dominant jihadist group in northeast Nigeria, multiplying magnitude attacks against the Nigerian army.
He consolidated his control in this region since the death in May of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, in clashes between the two rival groups.
Since the latter's death, according to security sources, Abu Musab al-Barnawi has also strengthened control of the Iswap in the Lake Chad region, where Boko Haram faithful still fight him.
"If Al-Barnawi died, his death may not have too much impact on the Iswap due to the group structure," said Malik Samuel, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.
Since the split with Boko Haram, the Iswap has undergone around five changes of direction, but he continued his deadly attacks against the security forces.
- Son of the founder of Boko Haram -
Abu Musab al-Barnawi is the son of the founder of the Boko Haram group, Mohammed Yusuf, killed in police custody in 2009 in Maiduguri, in northeast Nigeria.
Last September, ISWAP fighters killed 16 soldiers in an ambush in the state of Borno (northeast), one of the deadliest attacks this year against the Nigerian armed forces, which are struggling to defeat an Islamist insurrectionHaving made more than 40.000 dead in 12 years.
The jihadists exploded bombs by the side of a road before opening fire by means of rocket launchers on the military convoy which was circulating between the capital of the state of Borno and the city-guard of Monguno, specifiedthe sources
A week later, eight soldiers were killed by members of the Iswap who opened fire with rockets on another convoy also in the state of Borno.
But Boko Haram jihadists also launched an attack last September against Iswap fighters in their bastion on the Nigerian shore of Lake Chad, seizing a strategic island, according to a security source and fishermen.
Since the death of Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa forest, the Iswap has been fighting members of Boko Haram who refused to lend him allegiance.
Several hundred members of Boko Haram went to the Nigerian army, with their families, including their children.
Since the start of the radical Islamist Islamist rebellion of Boko Haram in 2009 in northeast Nigeria, the conflict has forced nearly two million people to leave their place of residential.
- Prev
- Next
