ISIS announces new Boko Haram leader

Divisions seem to be appearing throughout the ranks of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram as leaders dispute who is to control ISIS’s “West African province”.

The New York Times notes that al-Barnawi does not mention Shekau during the interview, but does condemn some Boko Haram tactics that became increasingly common under Shekau, notably the bombing of mosques and markets.

Analyst Jacob Zenn says the announcement indicates a coup by breakaway group Ansaru, which broke away from Boko Haram because of its indiscriminate killings of Muslims.

In the recording released on Thursday, the man purporting to be Shekau said that al-Barnawi was “an infidel” preaching “false creeds”. “They are compelling people to follow their path in bid to corrupt society”, Barnawi claimed in an interview published on Wednesday in the Daesh online magazine Al-Naba.

The targeting of students accounts for its nickname Boko Haram, which means Western education is sinful or forbidden.

The agenda of the militant outfit is to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria.

Reuters reports that “Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who took office last year, has made it a priority to defeat Boko Haram, which has tried to create a state adhering to strict sharia law in the northeast during a seven-year insurgency”.

He announced Gwoza as an Islamic caliphate in August, 2014. Most citizens believe the group no longer has the power to attack on the same scale as it has in the past.

The Nigerian military has reported killing Shekau on multiple occasions, only to later confirm that the person they killed was an impersonator, of which Shekau, at his peak, had many.

The group also engaged in several abductions throughout the region including that of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls. A was released by the group that declared that the girls have been sold or forced into marriage with their abductors.

The Ansaru split happened awhile ago, and ISIS’ statement may escalate that fracturing of the Boko Haram movement. She was found pregnant and traumatised and was brought to Chibok.

“Under my leadership the militants will work to seize back territory”.

Abubakar said the military has been capturing members of the terror sect on “a daily basis, so the change is not anything to us”.

The group has also expanded its campaign beyond Nigeria, carrying out terrorist attacks on neighbouring countries including Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The schoolgirls are seen as a powerful bargaining chip for the terrorist group, whose base has been significantly weakened.