The purported leader of Nigerian Muslim militant group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, on Sunday appeared in a video posted on social media in which he rejected statements by the country’s military that he had been seriously wounded.
In recent years, the Nigerian military has said it has killed or critically wounded Shekau on multiple occasions, often swiftly followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau.
Last month, the Nigerian Air Force said it had killed senior Boko Haram members and that Shekau had been wounded.
While the ensuing videos all show someone sporting Shekau’s distinctive beard, the grainy quality of the footage means it is not always possible to confirm if the person is the same as in the previous videos.
“You broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me, and here I am,” said a man purporting to be Shekau in a video addressed to “tyrants of Nigeria in particular and the west of Africa in general.”
“I will not get killed until my time comes,” he adds in the 40-minute video posted on YouTube and delivered in Arabic and Hausa, which is spoken widely in northern Nigeria.
A statement issued by Nigerian Army spokesman Sani Usman said the footage showed that the man purporting to be Shekau was “unstable” and came as “another sign that the end is near for him.”
“Boko Haram terrorism as it was known, is gone for good. We are just counting down to the day when all the few remnants will be totally wiped out or brought to justice,” he said.
The statement did not explicitly say whether the army considered the man in the video to be Shekau.
Last month’s announcement by the air force came days after the Islamic State, to whom Boko Haram had last year pledged allegiance, announced the appointment of a new leader of the west African group in an apparent rejection of Shekau.
That appointment was later rejected in a 10-minute audio clip on social media by a man purporting to be Shekau, exposing divisions within the extremist group that has plagued Nigeria and neighbors Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a state adhering to strict Muslim laws.
Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land in northeast Nigeria around the size of Belgium at the end of 2014, but was early last year pushed out by Nigerian troops, aided by soldiers from neighboring countries.
In a sign the group remains capable of inflicting damage, Usman said four Nigerian soldiers were killed and 16 others were injured on Sunday when they were ambushed by Boko Haram fighters during a patrol in the northeastern state of Borno.
He said three militants were killed.
The announcement came hours after two security sources told reporters in Chad that suspected militants killed four Chadian troops and wounded six overnight in an attack near the town of Kaiga, Nigeria.
They added that seven of the Muslim militants had been killed in return fire.
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