The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) militant group has alleged that Abubakar Shekau, leader of rival Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram, detonated his explosives vest killing himself instantly.
According to ISWAP which broke away from Shekau’s Boko Haram faction in 2016, Shekau died around May 18 after detonating an explosive device after he was cornered by ISWAP fighters following a battle.
ISWAP leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi in an audio recording announced the death of Boko Haram’s leader. This not the first time the death of Abubakar Shakeu has been announced.
A Nigerian intelligence report shared by a government official and Boko Haram researchers have also alleged Shekau is dead. Nigeria’s military last also said it was investigating Shekau’s alleged death and reported this in Nigerian and foreign news outlets.
ISWAP is trying to consolidate the whole area, the Lake Chad region and (Shekau’s stronghold) in an effort to take charge besides front itself as a formidable jihadi faction, subsequently entice fighters from Boko Haram to join the Islamic State affiliated outfit.
Jihadi factions in Africa continue to fight both physical and psychological warfare against each other in an effort to appeal to fighters within different rival faction. Boko Haram and ISWAP rivalry and battle of supremacy is one such case.
In East and Central Africa region, the Al-Qaeda affiliated, Al-Shabaab operating in Somalia is in similar rivalry battles with the Islamic State provinces (ISCAP) operating in Tanzania, Mozambique, DR Congo continues to take shape. ISCAP in the latest jab at the Al-Shabaab has pointed at the Somalia based jihadist group as selfish, business-oriented group which many times has executed fighters from the region on biased spying suspicion.
ISCAP warned Al-Shabaab to desist from using the slain Sheikh Aboud Rogo within their propaganda videos in an attempt to woo fighters to join their fold, noting Rogo left Al-Shabaab after realizing of its ills and failure to expand jihadi outside Somalia and it border with Kenya. ISCAP has warned those intending to do Hijra to rethink citing of endless executions within the militant group, especially on foreign fighters from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and as far as Egypt and Morocco. The battle of supremacy between the Al-Qaeda aligned Al-Shabaab and ISCAP expected to escalate in the coming days, as individual terror outfit try to outdo each other and appeal to wannabe jihadists.
