Boko Haram’s elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau, broke his
silence on Thursday to insist he was “still around” following reports Islamic
State had replaced him, but his message fuelled talk of a split within the
jihadist group, reports AFP.
For months, speculation has been rife over the fate of
Shekau, who has led the Islamist group since 2009 but has not been heard from
since March.
But on Thursday, following a report suggesting he had been
replaced, Shekau released an audio message insisting he was still very much
alive and in charge of the group, which last year had pledged allegiance to the
Islamic State jihadists.
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| Shekau |
“People should know we are still around. We will never cause
any discord among the people, we will live by the Koran,” Shekau said in a
10-minute audio message.
“This is our stand and we remain in our capacity as Jama’atu
Ahlissunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad,” he said using the Islamic name for Boko
Haram.
His voice was recognised by an AFP journalist familiar with
previous messages he has posted on social media.
It was also confirmed as Shekau’s voice by Berlin-based
jihadist expert Yan St-Pierre of the Modern Security Consulting Group
(Mosecon), who said his message had laid bare divisions within the group.
“The person who posted on the internet is a very reliable
source,” he told AFP.
“We knew that Boko Haram was divided on a strategic point of
view, now their divisions are public,” he said.
Shekau’s audio message was released after IS on Tuesday
published an interview with Sheikh Abu Musab al-Barnawi in its Al-Naba online
weekly magazine in which he was introduced as Boko Haram’s new leader.
In the interview, Barnawi talks about the history of jihad
in this region but makes no clear reference to Shekau.
Since March 2015, Barnawi has appeared in several videos
distributed by Boko Haram, claiming responsibility for successive attacks,
earning him the reputation of group spokesman, experts say.
But in his message, Shekau takes aim at Barnawi, dismissing
him as an infidel who condones living in an un-Islamic society without waging
jihad.
And in a tacit acknowledgement that his own position as
leader may have been usurped, he speaks of being tricked by some of his
followers.
“They deceived me,” he said.
“And now I find myself being forced to follow another
character who practices disbelief,” he says, in a message which becomes
increasingly more animated as he speaks.
St-Pierre said the message suggested Shekau was trying to
retain his base of support within Boko Haram without compromising the
commitment to IS.
“In the message, Shekau refers to Boko Haram under its
previous name, but with some ISIS propaganda elements, as if he wanted to
reassure its old combatants and base, without denying his commitment to (its
leader Abu Bakr) al-Bagdadi,” he said.
Speculation over the fate — and alleged disappearance — of
Shekau has been rife in recent months: he was last seen in a YouTube video in
March, looking weak, and saying: “For me, the end has come.”
He became Boko Haram leader after Nigerian security forces
killed the group’s founding chief Mohammed Yusuf in 2009, sparking an
insurgency that has left 20,000 people dead and forced 2.6 million people to
flee their homes.
But the group has become fractured under his leadership,
experts told AFP after the Barnawi interview was released.
“Boko Haram has lost its prestige and become difficult to
control (under Shekau). Today, Boko Haram is divided into several little
groups,” St-Pierre said.
And a Nigerian security analyst said he believed Shekau was
still alive, but that IS may be seeking to clean up Boko Haram’s reputation
among jihadists, by ousting a leader seen as disorganised and unreliable.
Boko Haram has been pegged back by an aggressive fight-back
from the Nigerian military since January 2014, losing territory and its
capacity to mount conventional attacks.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has described as cheap
propaganda the report that ISIS has appointed a new leader for Boko Haram,
saying it is too late to employ such tactics to revive the defeated terrorist
organisation.
” By the way, don’t believe the cheap propaganda by the
global terrorist group ISIS, which has reportedly named a new leader for Boko
Haram. Our gallant military has put Boko Haram on the run and nothing will
bring back the terrorists, not even the wishful thinking by ISIS,” Lai
Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, said in his remarks at the
ongoing All Nigerian Conference of Editors (ANEC) 2016 in Port Harcourt on
Thursday
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