Fri 21 May 2021:
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is died during an ambush by his rival the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), when the group tried to capture him in his Sambisa Forest hideout, he detonated a suicide vest, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing Nigerian officials and intelligence it reviewed from a West African spy agency.
The report said hundreds of Islamic State fighters attacked Shekau’s base in the Timbuktu region of the Sambisa Forest on Wednesday.
In 2015, Shekau pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and Boko Haram rebranded itself as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). However, internal disputes that involved the Islamic State naming another leader to lead ISWAP pushed Shekau to reassume the leadership role of the Boko Haram faction.
ISWAP — an offshoot that split from Shekau in 2016 — has long taken issue with Shekau’s pattern of brutalizing civilians. When Boko Haram stormed villages over the last 11 years, fighters tended to kill most residents.
Shekau commanded between 1,500 and 2,000 militants, according to a 2019 estimate from the International Crisis Group, while ISWAP had as many as 5,000.
Boko Haram has operated in northeast Nigeria and several other Western African nations, conducting numerous deadly attacks and abductions, since it initiated an Islamic insurgency in 2009.
The Nigerian military and regional forces have declared Shekau dead at least four times since 2009. After such announcements, Shekau released video messages, mocking the government while firing bullets into the air.
-with Sputnik
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