Chadian president claims Boko Haram leader dead

YAOUNDE

Chad’s president, Idriss Deby Itno, has claimed that Aboubakar Shekau is no longer the leader of the Boko Haram jihadist group.

At a press conference on the occasion of the 55th anniversary on Tuesday of Chad’s independence, President Deby said the Nigerian extremist group has a new leader.

He did not say what had happened to Abubakar Shekau, the declared leader of the group, but he said he had been replaced by a certain Mahamat Daoud who was ready to dialogue with the Nigerian government.

Speculation regarding Shekau’s ‘death’ is rife amongst countries involved in the war against the extremist group.

This speculation is further heightened by the fact that the ‘leader’ of the group has not appeared in Boko Haram’s videos of late.

NOT LAST LONG

“Boko Haram is decapitated. There are little groups (of Boko Haram members) scattered throughout east Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. It is within our power to definitively overcome Boko Haram,” President Deby said.

The Chadian leader even declared that the Boko Haram war will not last long after the setting up of the regional force headquartered in N’Djamena. “It will be over by the end of the year,” he said.

Earlier, in March, President Deby had called on Shekau to surrender or be killed.

He claimed Chadian forces knew his hideout, and that if he refused to surrender, “he will suffer the same fate as his comrades.”

While claiming progress in the fight against the jihadists, who have repeatedly hit border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and wrought havoc in northeast Nigeria, Deby admitted that suicide bombers still posed a threat.

In the past few week, suicide bombers, many of them women, have staged several attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.

The challenge, Mr Deby said, was to “avoid terrorist acts and that’s why we must organise at the regional level to prevent bomb-making materials and other explosives entering our countries”.