ABUJA, Nigeria (CU)_ Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has been declared dead or critically injured several times since the jihadist terrorist organisation first began its insurgency in more than a decade ago.
However, two intelligence sources said on Thursday (20 May), that Shekau is once again dead or seriously injured after trying to kill himself to avoid being captured during clashes with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). According to one intelligence source, the Boko Haram leader and some of his men were surrounded in organisation’s Sambisa forest stronghold by their rival extremist faction, who demanded that he surrender. “To avoid capture, Shekau shot himself in the chest and the bullet pierced his shoulder,” the source said, adding that he was “badly injured”.
On the other hand, the second source said that Shekau and his men were taking refuge in the house where he detonated explosives.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s army spokesman Mohammed Yerima told AFP that the matter is currently being investigated.
Shekau made international headlines back in 2014, when his fighters kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls, in Chibok, in the south of Borno State, where the insurgents are strongest. “The groups have been sparring with more intensity and it was clear if it got to a showdown, Boko Haram have less firepower and ability,” a local government official in the state said. “We have to wait to see if the reports (of Shekau’s death) are credible.”
The leader’s death or critical injury would be a blow to Boko Haram which is already being weakened, not only by military airstrikes on its bases, but also as a result of defections among its members. Conflict in northeast Nigeria, which has begun spreading to parts of neighbouring countries, has already killed over 40,000 people with more than two million others displaced.
