Nigeria: Boko Haram chief died, according to rival jihadists of the Iswap
Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, committed suicide during the fighting against the Islamic State rival jihadist group in West Africa (ISWAP), he said in an audio recording broadcast two weeks afterFirst information reporting his death.
"Shekau preferred humiliation in the beyond to humiliation on earth.He killed himself by triggering an explosive, "said in Kanuri a voice seeming to be that of the head of the Iswap Abu Musab al-Barnawi in this recording given to AFP by a source usually relaying the messages of the group.
Boko Haram did not speak on the announced death of his leader, and the Nigerian army said.
In his recording, Iswap describes how his troops, sent to the Enclave de Boko Haram, in the Sambisa forest, discovered Shekau sitting in his house and engaged in the fight.
"He retired and escaped, wandering through the bush for five days.Nevertheless the combatants (of the Iswap) continued to seek and track it down until they are able to locate it, "says the voice.
After having flushed into the bush, Iswap fighters ordered him, and his supporters, to repent, but Shekau refused and killed himself, she continues.
The Iswap, recognized by the Islamic State, was born in 2016 from a split with Boko Haram, which he notably criticizes murders of Muslim civilians.After being able to gain power, it is now the dominant jihadist group in northeast Nigeria, multiplying the magnitude attacks against the Nigerian army.
"We are so happy," said the voice, adding that Shekau is "someone who is guilty of terrorism and unimaginable atrocities".
- "maybe not finished" -
This rise in the group, which now seems to absorb Boko Haram fighters and take possession of its former territories worries analysts, because it means that the ISWAP now has a larger area under itscontrol, but also more fighters and weapons available.
Hostilities between Boko Haram and Iswap also benefited the Nigerian army.
"If the Iswap convinces Shekau's forces to join him, he will control the majority of enemy forces and will also be present in most of the areas escaping government control in the Northeast," explains in a note Peccavi Consulting,A risk assessment company specializing in Africa.
However, the Iswap will probably have to convince or fight other factions of Boko Haram Loyales in Shekau, which still have important bastions in particular on both sides of the border with Cameroon in Gwoza, Pulka, and inMandara mountains, as well as in Niger.
"It may not be over, the Iswap will have to submit or convince these groups to unite with him, to completely consolidate his control," said a security source.
Since 2019, the Nigerian army has retired from the villages and basics of small importance, to take refuge in "supercamps", a strategy criticized because it allows jihadists to move without hindrances in rural areas.
After taking the Sambisa forest, the Iswap sent messages to the inhabitants of the Lake Chad region, on the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, saying them welcome in its self -proclaimed "caliphate",Explained Sallau Arzika, a bagiser from Baga, locality of the lake shores.
Residents of the region were driven out of the Lake Chad islands by the Iswap who accused them of spying on behalf of the army.Al-Barnawi told them that they could return to fish and trade after payment of taxes, with the assurance that they would not be hurt, explained the fisherman.
Since the start of the rebellion of the Radical Islamist group Boko Haram in 2009 in northeast Nigeria, the conflict has made nearly 36.000 dead and two million displaced.
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