The leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau, was seriously injured while attempting to commit suicide to avoid capture by another terrorist group linked to the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap), according to Nigerian sources cited by France-Presse. …
According to the French news agency AFP, which cites two sources associated with the Nigerian intelligence services, Shekau suffered serious injuries after the fight with Iswap, but there are different versions of the source of these injuries.
According to an AFP source, Shekau was seriously injured when he shot himself, aiming for the heart, but the bullet passed over his shoulder, after which his men took him to another location.
Another AFP source says the injuries were the result of an explosion that the Boko Haram leader could have caused when he was a refugee with several supporters at a home in the Sambis Forest, the stronghold of this terrorist group, which operates mainly in northeastern Nigeria.
The Nigerian intelligence services contacted by the French agency have not yet confirmed the injuries.
For more than a decade, northeastern Nigeria has been plagued by an uprising that killed more than 40,000 people and displaced two million people from their homes, spreading to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
In 2016 the group split into two, with a historical faction led by Abubakar Shekau that controls one side of the Sambis forest and the other side of Iswap, a recognized Islamic state organization whose stronghold is around Lake Chad.
Both terrorist groups are fighting the Nigerian army, and there are also clashes between them for control of the territory. In recent years, Iswap has been gaining strength, conquering territory and conducting more sophisticated attacks, writes AFP.
