Boko Haram’s leader said a northeast town seized by the insurgents earlier this month has been placed under an Islamic caliphate, in a video it gave reporters on Sunday.
“Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in [the town of] Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video.
However, the military rejected the claim, saying in a statement that the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact.”
Photo: AFP
In a video last month, Shekau voiced support for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (IS) militants — formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere.”
However, there was no indication from Shekau in the latest video that he was associating himself with Baghdadi. As such, it was not clear if Shekau was declaring himself to be a part of Baghdadi’s call or if he was referring to a separate Nigerian caliphate.
Shekau — who has been designated a global terrorist by the US — is shown in the video wearing military fatigues, with a Kalashnikov rifle strapped to his body. He alternates between Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in the region. He is pictured standing in front of three SUVs and flanked by four fighters, who are masked and armed. It is not clear when or where the video was filmed.
There was no indication that Shekau was actually in Gwoza for the filming and his whereabouts remain unknown, but another unidentified fighter who speaks later in the video vowed that Boko Haram would keep control of the area.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.
Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighboring Yobe State.
Mapping the precise areas that have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible. There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region has poor mobile phone coverage.
Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria. However, many analysts believe the military still has the capacity to reverse the insurgents’ advance.
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