Boko Haram video shows Abubakar Shekau alive By BBC | Thursday, October 2 2014 In the new video, Abubakar Shekau says Sharia is being implemented in Boko Haram territory. PHOTO | BBC A video has been released showing the purported leader of Nigerias Islamist group Boko Haram dismissing the militarys allegations that he is dead. In the video, Abubakar Shekau says his fighters shot down an air force jet that went missing three weeks ago. Last week, the military claimed a man posing as the Boko Haram leader in videos had been killed and in August 2013 said that Shekau may be dead. Security analysts have questioned the credibility of the militarys claims. Nigeria journalist Ahmad Salkida, who has good contacts within Boko Haram, said on his Twitter account last week that he had it on authority that Shekau is well and alive. Is it is not clear when or where the video, obtained by the AFP news agency, was made. But BBCs editor, Mansur Liman, says the man speaking appears to be the same Abubakar Shekau in other Boko Haram videos. Previous assertions about Shekaus demise have been followed a few weeks later by such video message denials. Thousands of people have died during Boko Harams five-year insurgency - and three states in the north-east have been under a state of emergency for more than a year. The militant group has changed tactics in recent months, holding on to towns in the north-east, where most people are Muslims, rather than carrying out hit-and-run attacks. In August, Boko Haram declared an Islamic state in areas it controls - which Shekau refers to in the 36-minute video. In it, he stands on the back of a pick-up truck firing an anti-aircraft gun into the air. Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath, he says, mocking the militarys propaganda. We are running our caliphate, our Islamic caliphate. We follow the Koran... We now practise the injunctions of the Koran in the land of Allah, he says, referring to Sharia punishments. The video contains images of extreme violence, including graphic scenes of an amputation, a stoning to death and a beheading. It also shows the wreckage of a jet that went missing in the north-east on 12 September. Meanwhile, a mass court-martial has begun of Nigerian soldiers who refused orders to fight against the insurgents. It comes two weeks after 12 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny, after shots were fired at their commanding officer in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri in May. Boko Haram means Western education is forbidden in Arabic, and the group frequently attacks schools and colleges, which it sees as a symbol of Western culture. Their abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from a boarding school in April sparked global outrage.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 14:18:26 +0000
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