Amid reports that the Nigeria military has deployed its special force units to track down the wanted Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, there are firm indications that he may have fled Nigeria through the help of Islamic State (ISIS) groups operating in East and North Africa.
The Sun reported that Shekau is on the run following the recent loss of the sect’s caliphate headquarters in Gwoza, to Nigerian troops and the invasion of Sambisa Forest by a detachment of the nation’s special force units deployed from their base in Makurdi, Benue state.
According to dependable military intelligence sources who disclosed these details to the media outfit, Shekau had to send representatives to ISIS affiliates with strongholds in East and North Africa to pave the way for his escape to their region, from where he intends to coordinate his group’s activities or ultimately relocate to ISIS headquarters in the Middle East.
One of the sources disclosed that “having discovered that he was being tracked through his Thuraya satellite phone, Shekau recently dropped the line and handset totally to evade capture. But the last satellite image of him and other intelligence pieced together by forces on the battle frontline show his desperation to escape from the country to parts of East Africa or North Africa where ISIS is having some footholds.”
The military chief also stated that “as part of moves being made by Shekau, he now relocates with fewer guards and limited number of lieutenants knowing his movement schedule. This is to frustrate intelligence gathering efforts by security forces and avoid attracting the focus of satellite image capturing technology deployed by some foreign super powers and shared with the Nigerian security forces.”
In an attempt to escape the heat of on-going military operations in North-East Nigeria, Shekau reportedly has in the last few weeks changed his physical appearance dramatically.
“A recent intelligence from one of our foreign partners shows the Boko Haram leader clean shaven which totally alters his look. That heightens our curiosity about his motive, before we got other evidence that pointed to the fact that he was trying to cross the border”, the source added.
Reports also indicated that Shekau had stayed in crisis-ridden Northern Mali to coordinate the training and operations of its members before they were flushed out by a joint French and African force as well as Nigerian troops.
He, however, crossed the porous border to join his foot soldiers in Borno State.
Abubakar Shekau
“He may not find it easy to return to Mali this time round but we suspect he may be targeting East Africa or parts of North Africa such as Libya and Egypt where some islamist groups are causing instability now,” the senior military chief said.
However, he admitted that he cannot categorically say whether Shekau had indeed escaped or was still in the country.
“On whether he has successfully escaped from Nigeria, I have no such information but at the same time I cannot rule that out because of his level of desperation to flee and his links with some other groups within the region and even beyond”, the source stressed, adding: “What we strongly believe at this moment is that he is still within our reach or that of our neighbours; especially Niger and Chad. He may find it difficult to move beyond these borders and may end up returning to one of our remote villages in the North-East to hide.”
The source also stated that Shekau had told some of his close lieutenants that he would rather die from gunshot from his guards than being killed by the Nigerian troops whom he regards as “infidels.”
“One of his captured commanders once disclosed that Shekau had given instructions to his personal guards to shoot him dead in the face of a confrontation with our troops who he calls infidels. He believes that makes him a martyr,” the source added.
When contacted on the information that Shekau had fled the country between the last week of March and the first two weeks of April, the acting director of public relations of the Nigerian army, Colonel Sani Usman, said, “We have an ongoing war against terrorists in this country and we are determined by all means and what it takes to eliminate, capture all terrorists and destroy all their known camps.
“If in the process, any of their leaders is captured, so be it because the whole war is not about an individual. We are also determined to arrest all of them dead or alive.”
The militant group had on March 7, 2015, pledged allegiance to the leadership of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The pledge was made by Shekau, who addressed himself as the Imam of Jamaátu Ahlus Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (Boko Haram) and was addressed to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A week after Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance, the ISIS leadership in a statement accepted the sect into its fold and promise to work with it to establish an ISIS cell in West Africa. In an audio message, a man who claimed to be the spokesperson for ISIS, said the group’s aim of establishing a caliphate has now been expanded to West Africa.
ISIS has a few foreign groups from which it has accepted pledges, including Ansar Bayt al-Maqdisi in the Egyptian Sinai and groups of fighters in strategic areas of Libya. ISIS has a shura council that dictates the group’s strategic direction but takes a devolved, hands-off approach on tactical matters.
In April 14, 2014, Boko Haram claimed the abduction of 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.
Fifty-seven girls escaped within hours of the attack but 219 remained in captivity. In the weeks following the mass abduction, Nigerian security sources and locals in Borno said there were indications that the girls had been taken to the Sambisa Forest.
But defence officials and experts agreed that they were likely separated over the last 13 months, raising significant doubt on the possibility that they were being held together as a group.
Shekau, vowed to “marry them off” or sell them as “slaves.” The Chibok girls abduction brought unprecedented world attention to the Nigeria’s Islamist uprising.
Celebrities and prominent personalities including US First Lady Michelle Obama joined the Twitter campaign #BringBackOurGirls that attracted supporters worldwide.
Boko Haram under the leadership of Shekau, has been blamed for hundreds of other kidnappings, especially women and young girls across the North-East region of Nigeria.
