Embattled Boko Haram leader Shekau resurfaces in video Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

Kano — The embattled leader of jihadist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, resurfaced in a video posted online yesterday, rejecting assertions by the Nigerian army that he had been seriously wounded.

“You have been spreading in the social media that you injured or killed me,” Shekau said in the 40-minute video released on YouTube and dated September 25.

“Oh tyrants, I’m in a happy state, in good health and in safety.”

The Nigerian army said on August 23 that Shekau had been seriously wounded in the shoulder in an air raid in which several commanders were killed.

The army’s claim was bolstered when Boko Haram released a video on September 13 without Shekau in it.

That video, also posted on YouTube, shows an unidentified man who says he is representing Shekau, who had allegedly been ousted by the Islamic State group to which Boko Haram pledged allegiance in March 2015.

Nigerian soldiers, with the support of regional troops, have recaptured swathes of territory lost to the jihadists since they launched a military campaign in February 2014.

The mass kidnapping of schoolgirls from the remote town of Chibok provoked global outrage and brought unprecedented attention to Boko Haram and its bloody quest to create a fundamentalist state in northeastern Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the governor of Nigeria’s northeast Borno state has temporarily relocated to a town that was occupied by Boko Haram extremists for six months, in an effort to promote rebuilding.

The region is trying to recover as the extremists slowly lose control of some areas.

The town of Bama’s infrastructure was decimated in repeated attacks.

Kashim Shettima says he hopes to jump-start rebuilding of government offices, markets, clinics and schools. He did not say how long he would use the town as a base.

Bama is 70km southeast of Maiduguri, Borno’s capital. Boko Haram seized Bama in September 2014, and Nigerian troops recaptured it in March 2015.

In July, the extremists attacked an aid convoy travelling from Bama, and the UN suspended aid missions in the area.

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