African securityBoko Haram leader “fatally wounded in army air strike”: Nigeria

Published 23 August 2016

Nigeria claims to have “fatally wounded” Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, in an air strike targeting a meeting of the commanders of the Islamist group. The Nigerian military says that Shekau and other senior leaders of the group gathered for prayers on Friday, and that they were hit by an “air force raid.”

Nigeria claims to have “fatally wounded” Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, in an air strike targeting a meeting of the commanders of the Islamist group.

The Nigerian military says that Shekau and other senior leaders of the group gathered for prayers on Friday, and that they were hit by an “air force raid.”

The Nigerian military said that several senior Boko Haram commanders were confirmed dead – among them Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu, and Malam Hamman. The army’s statement said Shekau was “believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders.”

Fox News reports that Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, the acting director of the Nigerian army’s public relations unit, described the strikes as “the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid.”

He said the raid took place “while the terrorists were performing Friday rituals” at Taye village, Gombale general area within Sambisa forest, Borno State. “Several other terrorists were wounded,” he said.

Analysts note that this is not the first time the Nigerian army has reported the death of Shekau. The Nigerian authorities announced his death in 2013 and again in September 2014.

After Shekau appeared in a video to refute reports of his death, the Nigerian army said it believed a double for Shekau, going by the name Isa Damsaka, had been killed instead.

The Nigerian announcement came on the day U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry arrived in Nigeria. Kerry will work to coordinate the U.S. and  Nigerian response to Boko Haram which, since 2009, has killed more than 20,000 people and forces millions of Nigerian to flee their homes.

Boko Haram transforms “the most vulnerable among us into killers,” Kerry said, noting that ins fanatical campaign against non-Islamic education, the group destroys schools, burns books, murders teachers, and kidnaps students. “Make no mistake, we do not have to be prisoners of these extremists, they can be eliminated,” Kerry said. “We have to strike at the root of violent extremism. Nations need to do more than just denounce dead-end ideologies. There are far too many who join the ranks of these organizations because they have trouble finding meaning in their lives.”

The pervasive corruption of Nigeria’s government institutions has hollowed out the Nigerian military. That corruption, and the wide-spread human rights abuses committed by the Nigerian military against civilians, caused the United States to block arms sales to Nigeria and withdraw from the training of Nigerian armed forces.

The situation is changing, however, and the United States is now considering selling Nigeria twelve light attack aircraft. The deal must be approved by Congress, where the Leahy amendment (after Senator Patrick Leahy [D-Vermont]) requires a close scrutiny of any arms sales to Nigeria.

The Nigerian armed forces have been reformed under the president Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in May 2015 promising to tackle the country’s debilitating corruption. Kerry praised these reforms. “There’s no question in recent months that important progress has been made. Nigeria and its neighbors are systemically degrading Boko Haram’s capabilities,” Kerry said.

Shekau himself has had other problems to worry about. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS, but last year ISIS announced he was no longer the leader of Boko Haram, replacing him with a former spokesman. Analysts said that ISIS moved against Shekau because of his terror campaign against mosques and Muslim markets.

It appears, though, that Shekau had been able to weather the internal turmoil, and retain his grip over Boko Haram.