Kano, Nigeria:
Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has been seriously wounded following attempting to kill himself to stay clear of capture in the course of clashes with rival ISIS-allied jihadists in the north of the nation, two intelligence sources mentioned Thursday.
Shekau’s Boko Haram faction and fighters from the ISIS West Africa Province had been battling in northeastern Borno state, exactly where ISWAP militants have grow to be the dominant force in Nigeria’s more than decade-extended jihadist insurgency.
Shekau, who made international headlines when his males kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014, has been reported dead numerous occasions given that Boko Haram very first started its insurgency in 2009.
After a series of clashes, Shekau and some of his fighters had been surrounded on Wednesday by ISWAP jihadists in Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest stronghold, exactly where they demanded he surrender, one intelligence supply mentioned.
“To avoid capture, Shekau shot himself in the chest and the bullet pierced his shoulder,” the supply mentioned, adding: “He was badly injured.”
Some of his males managed to escape with him to an unknown location, the supply added.
A second intelligence supply mentioned Shekau was critically wounded following detonating explosives in the residence exactly where he was holed up with his males.
Nigeria’s army and officials did not straight away respond to requests for confirmation of the incident.
Shekau’s crucial injury or death would be a blow to his Boko Haram faction which has currently been weakened by military air strikes on its bases and defections amongst his males.
More than 40,000 persons have been killed and more than two million displaced from their houses by the conflict in northeast Nigeria, and fighting has spread to components of neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Boko Haram and ISWAP have fought battles for handle of territory in the previous.
ISWAP has emerged as the stronger force, carrying out complicated attacks on the military and overrunning army bases.
Shekau took more than Boko Haram, formally recognized as the Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, following its founder Muhammad Yusuf was killed by police in 2009.
Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram turned huge swathes of the northeast into a no-go territory, proclaiming a “caliphate” in the Borno town of Gwoza in 2014.
An offensive given that 2015 by Nigerian troops backed by soldiers from Cameroon, Chad and Niger drove jihadists from most of the location that they had after controlled.
Angered by Shekau’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians and use of females and children suicide bombers, a rival faction broke away in 2016 to grow to be ISWAP with the backing of the ISIS group.