Abu Musab al-Barwani, formerly Boko Haram’s spokesman, was identified
in the weekly IS magazine Naba as its West African “governor.” The
magazine did not mention the whereabouts of the previous Boko Haram
leader, Abubakar Shekau.
In a seven-year campaign to install a
Muslim caliphate in Nigeria, over 20,000 people have been killed and
millions have fled the country. The continued fighting provoked a
humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations and other agencies
delivering food and medicine and warning of calamity if more aid is not
delivered. A concerted campaign in the past 18 months, by Nigerian
forces and coalition troops from neighboring countries, has severely
weakened Boko Haram and taken back much of the territory it previously
conquered; the insurgent group’s response has been to take its fight to
neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Nigeria Military
Little
is known about Barnawi, who appeared in a 2015 Boko Haram video with a
soft-spoken demeanor and his face blurred. The fate of his predecessor,
Shekau, is equally mysterious. Known for his blustery, braggart manner,
he has been declared killed by Nigerian forces several times, only to
reappear in Boko Haram propaganda videos. He was most recently heard in
an August 2015 announcement, saying that he remains alive. But he has
not been seen since Boko Haram announced its alignment with IS in 2015.
Shekau was not seen in any video from Boko Haram in 2016, it is likely
he was killed in one of the 2015 bombardment of the Nigerian military in
the North-East. The propaganda videos and beheadings also were fewer,
perhaps due to successful Lafiya-Dole campaigns of the Nigerian Troops
in flushing the terrorists from all Hide-outs in the North-East
following instruction of President Buhari to the military that capacity
of Boko Haram be degraded with immediate effect.
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