Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a new video published online on Thursday has
debunked the claim that he was injured in an airstrike in remote northeast
Nigeria.
The
terrorist leader who was said to have been wounded and one of his deputies
killed when two air force jets bombarded fighters at Balla village last Friday
said he is alive and ignorant of the airstrike attack, insisting he was not
injured and that none of his key lieutenants was harmed either.
In
the 14-minute video which he spoke in Hausa and Arabic , Shekau was flanked by
two masked, armed men, sitting against what appeared to be a desert camouflage
net and Boko Haram’s black and white insignia with no indication of where the
video was shot.
“I’m
alive, I’m alive, I’m alive,” he said, wearing his trademark camouflage jacket
and cradling an assault rifle.
“I’m
alive; you have not killed any of my men. I didn’t even know this incident you
are talking about ever happened.
“What
surprises me is your claim that I’m nursing wounds. Look at me well. Look at my
sitting posture.” Shekau said.
There
was a surveillance footage which showed air force missiles being fired on Boko
Haram fighters believing to have injured or killed them according to the army
spokesman.
“There
were indications that quite a number of the terrorists’ key leaders have either
been killed or wounded,” army spokesman Brigadier-General Sani Usman said
earlier Thursday, without naming Shekau.
Recall
a source with links to the Islamist militants told AFP on Wednesday that Shekau
narrowly escaped death when the second missile hit as he was on his way to
preach at Friday prayers.
“It’s
bloody propaganda,” he said of Shekau’s video denial.
“Shekau
hurt his back from the impact of the second strike. He was injured in the back
and then taken out of the area to a place around Kolofata (near the Cameroon
border),” he added.
“You
can see he is not the same Shekau we were seeing in other videos. He didn’t
exude the same energy.”
The
Boko Haram insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead and made more than
2.6 million others homeless since 2009, devastating the region and leaving
millions dependent on humanitarian aid.
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