According to local media reports, Abubakar Shekau was critically injured, or killed after his fighters confronted ISWAP members. A military officer from Nigeria is examining allegations that the leader of the Boko Haram armed group may have been killed or severely wounded after fighting with a rival group, according to an army spokesman.
The organization, led by Abubakar Shekau, has murdered more than 30 000 people since 2009 and forced approximately two million people to leave their homes, and created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
According to a number of stories in the Nigerian media on Thursday, citing intelligence sources, Shekau was severely injured or killed in a battle with representatives of the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), which split from his organization in 2016.
Reuters news agency said that the allegations could not be automatically verified.
A spokesperson for the Nigerian military, Mohammed Yerima, said on Friday that the military was investigating.
“This is a rumor. We’re looking into it. We can only say something if we confirm it,” the spokesperson added.
In the past 12 years, Shekau has been allegedly killed many times, including in military announcements, only to appear later in a video post.
ISWAP formerly belonged to the Shekau group five years ago before its breakup, promising loyalty to ISIL (ISIS). The schism was attributed to theological ideological differences about Boko Haram’s assassination of people, which ISWAP opposed.
A new round of fighting emerged in April, according to local intelligence reports.
Fighters from Boko Haram ambushed an ISWAP brigade when carrying arms to one of its key camps, according to sources, and several ISWAP men were murdered.
In May, ISWAP launched an assault in revenge against a Boko Haram camp and there have been casualties from all sides. According to sources, ISWAP took the fight directly south in the Sambisa Forest to Boko Haram.
“Sambisa’s invasion by ISWAP was not to make Shekau surrender but to eliminate him for his unprovoked attack on its fighters in recent weeks,” a local intelligence source told the AFP news agency.
The death of Shekau may possibly put an end to the battles between the two groups, which would enable one to absorb the other’s fighters and strengthen its grip on the territories of northeast Nigeria.
Since 2009, the violence in northeastern Nigeria has killed over 40,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes, and has extended to sections of Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.
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