Boko Haram leader is dead, rival Daesh in West African Province confirms – The militant group Daesh West African Province (ISWAP) said in an audio recording heard by Reuters on Sunday that Abubakar Shekau, leader of rival Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, was dead.
Shekau died around May 18 after detonating an explosive device when he was pursued by ISWAP fighters following a battle, a person purporting to be ISWAP leader Abu Musab Al-Barnawi said on the audio recording.
“Abubakar Shekau, God has judged him by sending him to heaven,” he can be heard saying.
Two people familiar with Al-Barnawi told Reuters the voice on the recording was that of the ISWAP leader.
Shekau’s death could lead to the end of a violent rivalry between the two groups, enabling ISWAP to absorb Boko Haram fighters and consolidate its hold on territory in northeastern Nigeria, political analysts said.
That would allow ISWAP to focus its attention on the government and military, whose war efforts are languishing.
In the audio recording, the man identified as Al-Barnawi said his fighters had sought out the warlord on the orders of Daesh leadership, and battled Boko Haram insurgents until Shekau fled.
Eventually, ISWAP chased him down and offered him the chance to repent and join them, he said.
“From there he retreated and escaped, ran and roamed the bushes for five days. However, the fighters kept searching and hunting for him before they were able to locate him,” the voice said.
After finding him in the bush, ISWAP fighters urged him and his followers to repent, the voice added, but Shekau refused and killed himself.
“Shekau preferred to be humiliated in the afterlife than getting humiliated on earth, and he killed himself instantly by detonating an explosive,” he said.
Shekau led the transformation of Boko Haram from an underground extremist sect in 2009 to a full-fledged insurgency, killing, kidnapping and looting its way across northeast Nigeria.
The group has killed more than 30,000 people, forced around 2 million people to flee their homes and spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
ISWAP was previously part of Boko Haram before its split five years ago, pledging allegiance to Daesh. The schism was caused by religious ideological disagreements over the killing of civilians by Boko Haram, to which ISWAP objected.
“We are so happy,” the voice said, adding that Shekau was “someone who committed unimaginable terrorism and atrocities.”
Boko Haram has not yet officially commented on the death of their leader, who waged a more than decade-long insurgency in northeast Nigeria, while the Nigerian army said it was investigating the claim.
