Boko Haram Leader Killed In Lake Chad Basin, Niger Army Says

The Niger army said that it had killed a leader of the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin, where the country borders Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon.

Bakura was killed during a “surgical operation” on an island in the Diffa region of southeast Niger last week, a statement read.

He was said to have led a splinter group loyal to former Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, refusing to join rival faction the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and moving to the islands on the Niger side of the lake with his fighters.

Boko Haram’s insurgency against the government to establish an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria began in 2009, and has to date left some 40,000 people dead and forced more than two million to flee their homes.

The bitter conflict has also spilled across Nigeria’s borders, with Niger suffering its first attacks by the group in Bosso, on the shores of the lake, in 2015.

The Niger army said in its statement that Bakura was targeted by a fighter jet early on August 15, calling him a “feared leader” of the group.

“Very early in the morning of August 15, an air force fighter aircraft launched three targeted and successive strikes on the positions Bakura used to occupy in Shilawa,” it added.

Bakura, whose real name was given as Ibrahim Mahamadu, was said to be about 40 and originally from Nigeria, the Niger army said.

He joined Boko Haram more than 13 years ago and was said to have taken over the leadership of the group after Shekau’s death during jihadist infighting in May 2021.

AFP