Nigeria’s Boko Haram Leader Shekau Wounded After Military Airstrike As Kerry Arrives

Nigeria’s air force said it had killed a number of senior Boko Haram fighters and possibly their overall leader, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived for talks on tackling the militants.

Government planes attacked the Islamist group inside the Sambisa forest in its northeast heartland on Friday night, the air force said on Tuesday, saying it had only just confirmed details of the raid.

“Their leader, so called ‘Abubakar Shekau’, is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders,” the statement by military spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman added, without going into details on the source of its information.

The military has reported Shekau’s death in the past, only to have a man purporting to be him appear later, apparently unharmed, making video statements. There was no immediate reaction from the group, which communicates with the media only by videos.

In a statement released early on Tuesday, the Nigerian Army said an interdiction air raid was carried out by the Nigerian Air Force jets on Friday, August 19, 2016 in Taye Village, Gombale general area in Sambisa forest. The raid occurred Boko Haram terrorists were carrying out their friday rituals.

The news of the “injury in the shoulder” for Shekau and the death of many of his commanders will come as a relief to the country’s military hierarchy which has come under scathing criticism for its inability to rescue the abducted Chibok schoolgirls two years after their abduction.

According to a statement released in Abuja by Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman,the Boko Haram terrorists commanders confirmed dead include: Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others.
Usman said: “In what one could describe as the most unprecedented and spectacular air raid, we have just confirmed that as a result of the interdiction efforts of the Nigerian Air Force, some key leaders of the Boko Haram terrorists have been killed while others were wounded.

“The air interdiction took place last week Friday 19th August 2016, while the terrorists were performing Friday rituals at Taye village, Gombale general area within Sambisa forest, Borno State.

“Those Boko Haram terrorists commanders confirmed dead include : Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others. While their leader, so called “Abubakar Shekau”, is believed to be wounded on his shoulders. Several other terrorists were wounded.”

Nigeria has been pushing the United States to sell it aircraft to take on Boko Haram – a group that emerged in northeast Borno region seven years ago and has killed an estimated 15,000 people in its fight to set up an Islamist state.

Under Nigeria’s last president, Goodluck Jonathan, the United States had blocked arms sales and ended training of Nigerian troops partly over human rights concerns such as treatment of captured insurgents.

But the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has argued its human rights record has improved significantly enough to lift the blockade.

There was no immedaite comment from Kerry’s camp on the raids but he was due to speak in remote northwestern city of Sokoto later on Tuesday before travelling to Abuja to meet Buhari, officials said.

In May, U.S. officials told Reuters Washington wanted to sell up to 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria in recognition of Buhari’s reform of the country’s army. Congress needs to approve the deal.

A Nigerian judicial inquiry said this month the army killed 349 people from the minority Shi’ite Muslim sect last December in a series of clashes for which troops involved should be prosecuted.

Two weeks ago Boko Haram published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls from the northern city of Chibok kidnapped two years ago, saying some of them have been killed in air strikes.

The air force had denied it had killed any of the girls in air strikes. Authorities said in May that one of the missing girls had been found and Buhari vowed to rescue the others. (Reporting by Camillus Eboh and Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Heavens)