BOKO HARAM REJECTS NIGERIAN ARMY CLAIM OF LEADER’S DEATH
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BY OWOLABI OLUWADARA
A close confidant of the leader of the jihadist organization Boko Haram on Friday refuted claims from the Nigerien military asserting that he had been killed in a targeted air assault in the Lake Chad region.
The militant organization has been conducting a violent insurgency aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, resulting in approximately 40,000 fatalities and displacing over two million individuals from their residences.
Niger announced late Thursday that Boko Haram leader Bakura, whose birth name was identified as Ibrahim Mahamadu, was eliminated during a “surgical operation” on an island in the Diffa region of southeastern Niger the previous week.
However, in an audio message transmitted to AFP by a security source in the Lake Chad vicinity, one of Bakura’s deputies deemed the reports of the leader’s demise as “entirely false. ”
“I am with him presently; we are together,” he stated in the Hausa language prevalent in the area, labeling the Nigerien military’s announcement as “propaganda. ”
Several experts consulted by AFP also expressed skepticism regarding the unverified assertion.
Since 2023, Niger has been ruled by a military junta that came to power through a coup but has faced challenges in curtailing the jihadist violence afflicting the nation.
In addition to the eastern region, where Boko Haram operates freely, the Sahel country also contends with insurgencies led by combatants affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group in the west, near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.
– No evidence –
Bakura rose as the leader of a splinter faction loyal to former Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau, which refused to align with the rival group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) due to ideological disparities.
He subsequently relocated to the islands on the Niger side of the lake with his followers.
The Nigerien military claimed in its statement that Bakura was targeted by a fighter jet during an early morning attack on August 15, but did not provide any corroborating evidence. AFP was unable to independently verify his alleged demise.
“I believe it is essential to exercise extreme caution,” remarked Vincent Foucher, a researcher at France’s CNRS institute specializing in Boko Haram studies.
“They have previously announced the deaths of several jihadist leaders multiple times, and frequently, those proclamations have been contradicted.
“At this time, we only have an announcement from the authorities. ”
Together with another expert on West African jihadist factions, who preferred to remain unnamed, Foucher indicated that his sources suggested Bakura was still at large.
– Student abductions –
The Boko Haram conflict has spilled over Nigeria’s porous northeastern borders with Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, with Niger experiencing its initial attacks by the group in Bosso, along the shores of Lake Chad, in 2015.
At the peak of the conflict in the 2010s, Shekau was reported dead on several occasions, only to re-emerge in video recordings, mocking the Nigerian authorities.
He ultimately perished in 2021, with Bakura assuming leadership thereafter.
Reportedly around 40 years old, Bakura is originally from Nigeria, according to the Nigerien military.
It asserted that he participated in the abduction of over 300 students in Kuriga, Nigeria, in March 2024, and assisted in orchestrating suicide bombings targeting mosques, markets, and public assemblies, in addition to assaults on the Nigerien, Nigerian, and Cameroonian military forces.
He became affiliated with Boko Haram more than 13 years prior and assumed command of the organization following Shekau’s demise amid jihadist conflicts in May 2021.
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