Why Shekau was missing in new Boko Haram video

The factional leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, was conspicuously missing in the new video released by the insurgents’ group because he was nursing the ‘fatal’ wound he sustained recently, a source who has been following the insurgents’ video since 2014 said.

A new video released by Boko Haram last Wednesday showed a crowd of insurgents purportedly observing the Eid Kabir without their leader, Shekau, who the military claimed was fatally wounded during an air raid on August 19.

“The air interdiction took place on Friday, August 19, 2016, while the terrorists were performing Friday rituals at Taye village, Gombale general area within Sambisa forest, Borno State. The Boko Haram commanders confirmed dead include Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others, while their leader, the so-called “Abubakar Shekau,” is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders,” the military said.

It was gathered from a source that had link with the insurgents in the past that the jihadists’ leader might be ill. “From all indications and from my checks, the man is ill. He was not also in the audio released by the group in the first week of August. All is not well with him,” the source said.

Commenting on the observed absence of Shekau, the media coordinator of the counter-insurgency operation in the northeast, Operation Lafiya Dole, Air Commodore Dele Alonge said the video confirmed claims by the military that Shekau is indisposed. “For the past one month, how many of the Boko Haram terrorists have seen either the first Shekau, second or the person cloning him? We have said earlier and we maintained that Shekau or the man cloning him is fatally wounded from our troops’ bombardment. That was why he wasn’t in their video,” he said.

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By Unknown on Sunday 18 September 2016