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Shekau surfaces in new video, says Boko Haram not crushed

By Uju Ochulo with agency report
29 December 2016   |   11:23 am
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video to debunk Nigeria's government claims that the group has been crushed and flushed out of its Sambisa forest stronghold.
(FILES) This file screengrab taken on November 9, 2014 from a Boko Haram video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram and obtained by AFP shows the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau preaching to locals in an unidentified town. AFP PHOTO / BOKO HARAM / HO

(FILES) This file screengrab taken on November 9, 2014 from a Boko Haram video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram and obtained by AFP shows the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau preaching to locals in an unidentified town. AFP PHOTO / BOKO HARAM / HO

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video to debunk Nigeria’s government claims that the group has been crushed and flushed out of its Sambisa forest stronghold.

“We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere. And tactics and strategies cannot reveal our location except if Allah wills by his decree,” Shekau said in the 25-minute video, flanked by armed fighters.

“You should not be telling lies to the people,” he said, referring to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who said on Christmas Eve that the extremist group had been defeated and driven away from the forest, its last known bastion.

“If you indeed crushed us, how can you see me like this? How many times have you killed us in your bogus death?” he asked.

It was not immediately clear where the new video was shot, but Shekau who spoke in both Hausa and Arabic said it was filmed on Christmas Day.

Shekau last appeared in a video in September where he disputed a claim by the Nigerian military that he had been wounded in battle.

He vowed to continue fighting on until an Islamic state was imposed in northern Nigeria.

“Our aim is to establish an Islamic Caliphate and we have our own Caliphate, we are not part of Nigeria.”

Buhari had announced that a months-long military campaign in the 1,300 square-kilometre (500 square-mile) forest in northeastern Borno state had led to the “final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave in Sambisa Forest”.

The government in Abuja and the military have frequently claimed victories against the Islamic State group affiliate but access to the epicentre of the conflict is strictly controlled.

That has made independent verification of official statements about victories virtually impossible.

Attacks have meanwhile continued, making claims of defeating Boko Haram questionable despite undoubted progress in pushing back the group.

The Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed at least 20,000 and forced some 2.6 million others to flee their homes since 2009.

The violence has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the region, with thousands of children facing the risk of famine and starvation.

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15 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Where is the VDO then?

  • Author’s gravatar

    Guardian and its antics, why not air the video so as to lend credence to the truthfulness of the news. A beg give me a break.

  • Author’s gravatar

    whose report we you believe? Boko Haram or your Government, though it depends which news you prefer. As far as I am concern Boko Haram has been humbled and in disarrayed.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Guardian news a shame of you.

  • Author’s gravatar

    If Shekau and it group keeps running and continue claiming to be alive , One clear thing is that even if the Nigeria military and government are unable to locate there where about. The undoubting fact is that they will die one day and the evils committed on innocents citizen will be visited on them either alive or in death. Quran said nobody shall take lives of any human being in the name of religion or anything. Bin ladian runs for more than three years before Allah that he uses to commits all sort of atrocity say his end time is now before sophisticated American military was able to track him down in his hide-out in remount part of PASKISTAN; therefore SHEKAU can continue to run its end shall comes.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Listen to this man:
    ‘Our aim is to establish an Islamic Caliphate and we have our own Caliphate, we are not part of Nigeria.”
    Biafra is saying the same thing. Give them Islamic Caliphate, give West their Oduduwa State and allow East their lovely Biafra.

  • Author’s gravatar
  • Author’s gravatar

    The video was sent to news agencies on Thursday. See D&W, a foreign news agency said “A man who identified himself as Shekau said in a video sent to news agencies on Thursday that the Islamist group had “not been flushed out of anywhere.”

  • Author’s gravatar

    Guardian, what happened to my earlier post? I wasn’t abusive.

  • Author’s gravatar

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