KANO // Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau broke his silence on Thursday to insist he was “still around” following reports that ISIL had replaced him, with his message fuelling talk of a split within the group.
Shekau had not been heard from since March and speculation was rife over his fate.
But on Thursday, following a report suggesting he had been replaced, Shekau released a ten-minute audio message insisting he was very much alive and still in charge of the Nigeria-based extremist group.
“People should know we are still around. We will never cause any discord among the people, we will live by the Quran,” he said.
“This is our stand and we remain in our capacity as Jama’atu Ahlissunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad),” he said using the official name for Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to ISIL last year.
The message was confirmed as Shekau’s voice by Berlin-based extremism expert Yan St-Pierre of the Modern Security Consulting Group, who said his message had laid bare divisions within the group.
“The person who posted on the internet is a very reliable source,” he said. “We knew that Boko Haram was divided on a strategic point of view, now their divisions are public.”
Shekau's audio message was released after ISIL published an interview with Sheikh Abu Musab Al Barnawi on Tuesday in its Al Naba online weekly magazine in which he was introduced as Boko Haram's new leader.
In the interview, Al Barnawi talks about the history of Islamic extremism in the region but makes no clear reference to Shekau.
Since March 2015, Al Barnawi has appeared in several videos distributed by Boko Haram that claimed responsibility for successive attacks. This earned him the reputation of group spokesman, experts say.
But in his message, Shekau took aim at Al Barnawi, dismissing him as an infidel who condones living in an un-Islamic society without waging war.
And in a tacit acknowledgement that his own position as leader may have been usurped, he spoke of being tricked by some of his followers.
“They deceived me. And now I find myself being forced to follow another character who practices disbelief,” he said, the message become increasingly more animated.
Mr St-Pierre said the message suggested Shekau was trying to retain his base of support within Boko Haram without compromising the commitment to ISIL.
“In the message, Shekau refers to Boko Haram under its previous name, but with some ISIS propaganda elements, as if he wanted to reassure [Boko Haram’s] old combatants and base, without denying his commitment to (ISIL’s 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 said after the Al 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,” Mr St-Pierre said.
And a Nigerian security analyst said he believed Shekau was still alive, but that ISIL may be seeking to clean up Boko Haram’s reputation among extremists by ousting a leader seen as disorganised and unreliable.
Boko Haram has been weakened by an aggressive fightback from the Nigerian military that began in January 2014, losing territory and its capacity to mount conventional attacks.
* Agence France-Presse
