Abubakar Shekau, the head of the Boko Haram Islamist group that kidnapped more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls last year, has been ousted as its leader, it has been claimed.
Shekau, who gained worldwide notoriety after appearing in a series of videos in which he threatened to sell the girls as slaves, has been replaced by Boko Haram’s deputy who is said to be open to peace talks, according to Idriss Deby, the president of Chad Republic.
Deby, whose forces have been fighting Boko Haram militants around Nigeria’s border areas, made the comments in a press conference, Tuesday, in which he claimed that the group would be finished “by the end of the year.”
“There is someone apparently called Mahamat Daoud, who is said to have replaced Abubakr Shekau and he wants to negotiate with the Nigerian government,” he said, adding: “For my part, I would advise not to negotiate with a terrorist.”
It was not clear how Deby had obtained his information, although rumours have been circulating in recent months that Shekau had gone on the run or even fled Nigeria altogether as a result of increased military operations against Boko Haram by the Nigerian and Chadian governments.
Little is known about the man named by Deby as his successor.
Deby was speaking to reporters in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, on the 55th anniversary of Chad’s independence from France. His claims that Boko Haram are facing imminent defeat will, however, be questioned by some given the carnage the group has wreaked in recent days across its strongholds in north-east Nigeria.
On Tuesday, a bomb killed at least 47 people and wounded dozens more in the village of Sabon Gari, near the north-east city of Maiduguri. Two days before that, jihadists shot dead four people and abducted five more in the same area.
Nigerian and Chadian commanders maintain that they have at least stopped the group controlling entire towns and neighbourhoods, and that the recent attacks amount to a return to hit-and-run tactics.
While claiming progress in the fight against the jihadists, who have repeatedly hit border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, Deby admitted that suicide bombers still posed a threat. But he added: “Boko Haram is decapitated. There are little groups (of Boko Haram members) scattered throughout east Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. It is within our power to definitively overcome Boko Haram.”
Nigeria’s defence spokesman however said Nigeria’s military is not concerned with who led Boko Haram.
“We are working (with Chad and others) towards a common end to ensure that we stamp out the terrorists and their arsenal,” the spokesman said.
The terrorists still constitute a security nightmare as six people were killed during a raid by just outside Maiduguri, a police officer said on Wednesday.
A Cameroonian soldier was also killed during a cross-border incursion from neighbouring Nigeria by Boko Haram militants, a senior Cameroonian military source said.
In the fighting near Maiduguri, the militants entered Bale Mamman village to rustle livestock on Tuesday evening, police commissioner, Aderemi Opadokun said. “Before the arrival of troops, six persons were shot dead,” he said.
A military and a vigilante source said eight people had been killed and four women abducted during fighting that lasted about three hours.
Also on Wednesday, a senior Cameroonian military source said Boko Haram had killed a soldier from Cameroon in a cross-border incursion from Nigeria.
The battle took place in Achigachia in Cameroon’s Far North region on Tuesday, said the source, who estimated the attackers may have lost around 20 men in the firefight.
“They attacked on two fronts at around 2.30 a.m. (0130 GMT),” said the source. “During the battle we lost a chief sergeant. Also, a lieutenant was wounded in the arm,”
Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger launched a regional offensive this year that forced Boko Haram from several towns it held in Borno state, the birthplace of the jihadi group and a frequent target of raids and suicide bombers.
But it has killed more than 600 people in a series of raids and bombings since President Muhammadu Buhari took office on May 29, vowing to crush the jihadi group. It has also stepped up attacks in neighbouring countries.
Bale Mamman is a Nigerian village just southeast of Maiduguri, a city of 2 million people. Boko Haram has been trying to carve out an Islamist state adhering to strict sharia law since 2009 in the northeast of the country.
It pledged allegiance this year to Islamic State, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.
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