Nigeria’s military on Wednesday claimed for the first time that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was dead, as it said troops had killed a lookalike who had been posing as the militant commander.
Nigerian defense spokesman Chris Olukolade told reporters in Abuja that a heavily bearded extremist fighter identified as Mohammed Bashir died during fighting in the town of Konduga in Borno state.
Bashir, who was said to have had several aliases, had “been acting or posing on videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group,” he added.
Photo: AFP
The announcement is the first time the military has said publicly that Shekau was dead after two previous claims by security sources that he had died in July 2009 and in June last year.
Olukolade said on Wednesday that the actual identity of Boko Haram’s leader was not relevant. The name “Shekau” had become a “brand name for the terrorists,” he told a news conference.
There has long been speculation in Nigeria and beyond about whether he was actually still alive. It has been claimed that he actually died in 2003 and his name has since been used by at least two others.
Olukolade told the press conference that Bashir had several identities: “Bashir Mohammed, alias Abubakar Shekau, alias Abacha Abdullahi Geidam, alias Damasak, etc,” he said.
The military showed footage of an amateur video recording of the fighting in Konduga, in which bodies littered the streets.
“That character tallies with the one that has been showing himself on the video,” Olukolade said, pointing to a bearded man lying dead on the ground alongside another slain fighter.
A close-up still photograph of the man’s face was also shown alongside a screengrab from a Boko Haram video of Shekau holding an assault rifle.
An arrow pointed to a small growth on the forehead of both men.
Analysts said earlier this week that they were skeptical about claims that he had been killed, as the same photograph shown by the military circulated online.
Ryan Cummings, chief Africa analyst at Red24 risk consultants in South Africa, said he thought it unlikely that Boko Haram’s commander would be in the thick of battle in Konduga or anywhere else.
However, Jacob Zenn, from the Jamestown Foundation think tank in the US, said the death of a body double in Konduga was plausible.
“It is important to note, however, that Shekau may have had ‘doubles’ who appeared in some videos, and the army has a record of being incorrect about claims of Shekau’s death,” he said.
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