The Islamic State (IS) militant group has announced that its West African
\naffiliate Boko Haram has a new leader.<\/p>\n
Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who was previously spokesman for the Nigerian-based
\nIslamists, is featured in the latest issue of an IS magazine.<\/p>\n
It does not say what has become of the group’s former leader Abubakar Shekau.<\/p>\n
He was last heard from in an audio message last August, saying he was
\nalive and had not been replaced – an IS video released in April said the
\nsame.<\/p>\n
Boko Haram, which has lost most of the territory it controlled 18 months
\nago, is fighting to overthrow Nigeria’s government.<\/p>\n
Its seven-year insurgency has left 20,000 people dead, mainly in the
\ncountry’s north-east.<\/p>\n
In the interview in IS’s weekly Arabic magazine al-Naba, Mr Barnawi said
\nhis group “remained a force to be reckoned with” and said it had been
\ndrawing new recruits.<\/p>\n
He described the group’s battle against West African states as a war
\nfought by Muslims against “apostates” and “crusaders”.<\/p>\n
Mr Shekau took over as the group’s leader after its founder, Muhammad
\nYusuf, died in Nigerian police custody in July 2009.<\/p>\n
Under his leadership Boko Haram became more radical, carried out more
\nkillings and swore allegiance to IS in March 2015.<\/p>\n
In numerous videos, Mr Shekau taunted the Nigerian authorities,
\ncelebrating the group’s violent acts including the abduction of the more
\nthan 200 Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014.<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s army has claimed to have killed him on several occasions, and he
\nhas not appeared in a video since joining IS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n