The Islamic State (IS) militant group has announced that its West African
affiliate Boko Haram has a new leader.
Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who was previously spokesman for the Nigerian-based
Islamists, is featured in the latest issue of an IS magazine.
It does not say what has become of the group’s former leader Abubakar Shekau.
He was last heard from in an audio message last August, saying he was
alive and had not been replaced – an IS video released in April said the
same.
Boko Haram, which has lost most of the territory it controlled 18 months
ago, is fighting to overthrow Nigeria’s government.
Its seven-year insurgency has left 20,000 people dead, mainly in the
country’s north-east.
In the interview in IS’s weekly Arabic magazine al-Naba, Mr Barnawi said
his group “remained a force to be reckoned with” and said it had been
drawing new recruits.
He described the group’s battle against West African states as a war
fought by Muslims against “apostates” and “crusaders”.
Mr Shekau took over as the group’s leader after its founder, Muhammad
Yusuf, died in Nigerian police custody in July 2009.
Under his leadership Boko Haram became more radical, carried out more
killings and swore allegiance to IS in March 2015.
In numerous videos, Mr Shekau taunted the Nigerian authorities,
celebrating the group’s violent acts including the abduction of the more
than 200 Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014.
Nigeria’s army has claimed to have killed him on several occasions, and he
has not appeared in a video since joining IS.