Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Sunday that Boko Haram leader
Abubakar Shekau is “wounded”, in his first comments on military claims
that the jihadi leader was injured in an attack.
Nigeria’s armed forces said on Tuesday that Shekau had been wounded in an
air strike on Boko Haram’s forest stronghold, but released no further
statement or evidence confirming his condition.
“We learnt that in an air strike by the Nigeria Air Force he was wounded,”
Buhari said in a statement from Nairobi, where he is attending a
development conference.
“Indeed their top hierarchy and lower cadre have a problem,” Buhari said.
“They are not holding any territory and they have split to small groups
attacking soft targets.”
Buhari said that Shekau had been “edged out” of the group, adding credence
to claims that Islamic State (IS)-appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi was now
in charge of the insurgency.
Signs of a power struggle in the top echelons of the jihadi group appeared
earlier this month when Shekau released a video denying he had been
ousted.
Barnawi is believed to be the 22-year-old son of Boko Haram founder
Mohammed Yusuf and was announced as the group’s leader in August by IS.
Buhari made his remarks from Nairobi this weekend where he is attending
the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a summit
designed to boost ties between Africa and Japan.
The president also said he “is prepared to talk to bona fide leaders of
Boko Haram” to negotiate the release of 218 Chibok girls captured by the
militants in 2014.
Boko Haram has ravaged northeast Nigeria in its quest to create a
fundamentalist Islamic state, killing over 20,000 people and displacing
2.6 million from their homes.
Turning to another major security concern in Nigeria, Buhari threatened
militants sabotaging oil infrastructure in the southern swamplands of the
Niger delta.
“We will deal with them as we dealt with Boko Haram if they refuse to talk
to us,” Buhari said.
The country’s petroleum minister has said that as a result of the ongoing
attacks Nigeria’s oil output has dropped 23 per cent from last year to 1.5
million barrels per day, according to Bloomberg News.
Groups including the Niger Delta Avengers are demanding a greater share of
oil revenues, political autonomy, and infrastructure development in the
southern riverlands where despite massive oil wealth people still struggle
to access basic health care and education.
Buhari said his government was in talks with the some of the militants but
said there was no “ceasefire”, despite an announcement by the Avengers
last week.