Isis tries to impose new leader on Boko Haram in Nigeria
Source: The Guardian and agencies
Isis tries to impose new leader on Boko Haram in Nigeria
Leadership of terrorist group that kidnapped 300 schoolgirls
in 2014 is in doubt, with long-term leader believed to be out
of favour after killing moderate Muslims
Ruth Maclean in Conakry, Isaac Abrak in Abuja and agencies
Friday 5 August 2016 00.55 BST
Two of the purported leaders of Boko Haram are apparently pitted against each other in a power struggle within Islamic States west African affiliate.
Isis announced on Tuesday that the group that has ravaged northern Nigeria for the past seven years had a new leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi. An Isis magazine carried an interview with him and said he was previously a Boko Haram spokesman.
However an audio message apparently recorded by Abubakar Shekau, the long-time leader of Boko Haram, who has appeared in many of its videos, was released on Thursday denying al-Barnawis claim. In the recording, a man who said he was Shekau said that he was still in control of the armed terrorists whose most notorious crime was the abduction of around 300 schoolgirls from their dormitory two years ago, leading to the Bring Back Our Girls campaign led by Michelle Obama.
Shekau has overseen the brutal and bloody growth of the group: since he became Boko Harams leader in 2009 more than 20,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million driven from their homes. Thousands have been raped, abducted and enslaved.
[font size=1]
-snip-[/font]
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/05/isis-tries-to-impose-new-leader-on-boko-haram-in-nigeria