(Reuters) – Nigeria’s Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau, or a man claiming to be him, has been killed
at least three times so far, according to the military, yet
each time he apparently returns in the group’s
numerous jihadist videos.
Dead or alive, he appears to be fuelling violence which
rights groups say is killing more people than at any
time during Boko Haram’s five-year-old reign of terror
in the north of the 175 million-strong state.
Officials say Shekau may be a name adopted by
leaders of various wings of Boko Haram, raising the
possibility the death of one may make others more
amenable to negotiating an end to the fighting and
release of 200 schoolgirls whose kidnap in April
caused an international outcry.
The last time the military said he was dead a year ago,
a man looking similar to Shekau but slightly fatter
continued to appear in videos issuing threats and
taunting authorities.
The Islamist insurgents have killed thousands of
people, many of them civilians, since launching an
uprising in 2009, and abducted hundreds of children
in a tactic reminiscent of Ugandan rebel Joseph
Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in central Africa.
Shekau’s face has often appeared on video claiming
attacks.
Now Nigeria’s military says this video imposter — real
name Bashir Mohammed — has died in fighting in the
town of Kondugu, prompting the question whether
there is another Shekau lookalike ready to continue the
fight in Africa’s top economy.
An alternative possibility is that Shekau is not dead.
“The Nigerian army has claimed on multiple occasions
to have killed Shekau and it’s been disproved,” said
Ben Payton, senior Africa analyst at UK-based risk
consultancy Maplecroft.
Shekau took over when Boko Haram’s founder and
spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed in policy
custody in 2009.
“BRAND NAME”
It is not possible to verify whether or not the videos are
of the same person or more than one, but the man in
later videos that the military said was Bashir
Mohammed had a plumper, rounder face, his nose was
wider and his bridge less defined.
His talk was even more bellicose and maniacal than
the original Shekau, with statements vowing to kill all
pagans and saying he was against the ideology of the
whole world.
The old Shekau was often quite sombre; the new one
has a menacing laugh. And he only appeared after the
alleged death of the real Shekau in August last year.
“The name Shekau has become a brand name for the
terrorists’ leader,” military spokesman Major-General
Chris Olukolade said on Thursday, an acknowledgment
that however many Shekaus they kill, the violence is
unlikely to end.
By contrast, the death of Angolan rebel leader Jonas
Savimbi in battle in 2002 ended a quarter century of
civil war in Angola.
“Even if Shekau has been killed … Boko Haram is much
bigger than one individual. It has multiple units that
operate with a fair degree of autonomy,” said Payton.
But if it is true that Nigerian forces have inflicted heavy
casualties in the past few days on a faction of the
militants, as Boko Haram sought to hold territory it
declared to be an “Islamic state” two months back, the
others might turn out to be slightly more moderate.
The military said on Wednesday more than 130 Boko
Haram Islamist fighters had surrendered, and a man
posing as the group’s leader in numerous videos had
been killed in clashes, although it often claims
successes that are impossible to independently verify.
“It’s very likely that there’s two or three Shekaus and
the commanders of different factions decided to all use
the name,” said Jacob Zenn, Boko Haram expert at the
Jamestown Foundation.
“Possibly, that leaves … an opportunity to capitalise on
the death of this Shekau and start talks with various
(other) members of Boko Haram.”
