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Abuja — A new audio message purportedly from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau calls the Nigerian army liars for saying troops have regained territory from the militant Islamist group. Nigeria’s military said on Friday it had recaptured villages and rescued 90 people in a process that involved the “continuous elimination” of the group from Nigerian territory.
“They’ve lied about us saying that they [have] retaken our territories, taken weapons and driven us away,” says the recording posted online. “They’re actually the ones whom we’ve driven away. They’re all liars.” Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio message. The Twitter feed of jihad monitoring site Site Intelligence said the Hausa language audio message was released by Shekau on Saturday.
Boko Haram has been fighting for six years to set up a state adhering to strict Islamic laws and at the start of 2015 controlled vast swathes of territory across three states in north-east Nigeria. Nigeria’s army, aided by troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, said it pushed Boko Haram out of most of the territory earlier this year.
Suspected members of Boko Haram have killed around 800 people in Africa’s most populous nation in a spate of bombings and shootings since President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated as president on May 29. In the recording, Shekau appeared to make references to Buhari’s visits to US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande in July and September respectively. “Buhari, you’re yet to finish spending Obama’s money. The business you’re doing with the money isn’t over yet because I’m here alive. Your business with Francois Hollande isn’t yet complete because I’m still alive,” he said.
Nigeria’s military has repeatedly claimed that Shekau has been killed over the last few years only for him to resurface in new videos and recordings, although security sources have said he may have been replaced by impostors. In August, Chad’s president Idriss Deby said Shekau was wounded and had been replaced as leader by Mahamoud Daoud, adding that Shekau went to Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, after he was wounded.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s main relief agency yesterday warned of high casualties a day after multiple explosions blamed on Islamist militants Boko Haram hit the restive north-eastern city of Maiduguri. The blasts happened shortly after 1920hrs on Sunday in the Gomari and Ajilari areas of the city, said Ibrahim Abdulkadir, spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). “Our team responded promptly by evacuating bodies of victims to the mortuaries and those injured to the hospitals for treatment,” he said.
Abdulkadir was not able to give an exact death toll but he added: “The casualty is high. One of the explosives was planted in a mosque where people were praying.” — AFP
derick.khumalo