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| Boko Haram in Nigeria: Split emerges over leadership | Boko Haram in Nigeria: Split emerges over leadership |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The disputed leader of Boko Haram has said he is still in charge of Nigeria's militant Islamist group despite a statement by so-called Islamic State that he had been replaced. | |
| Abubakar Shekau denounced the IS declaration that Abu Musab al-Barnawi was now leader. | |
| Shekau accused al-Barnawi of trying to stage a coup against him. | Shekau accused al-Barnawi of trying to stage a coup against him. |
| Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government and establish an Islamic State in the north. | Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government and establish an Islamic State in the north. |
| In the last 18 months it has lost most of the territory it had controlled after being pushed back by an offensive by the forces of Nigeria and its neighbours. | In the last 18 months it has lost most of the territory it had controlled after being pushed back by an offensive by the forces of Nigeria and its neighbours. |
| Shekau was last heard from in an audio message last August, saying he was alive and had not been replaced - an IS video released in April said the same. | |
| In a 10-minute audio message in both Arabic and Hausa, Shekau appeared to distance Boko Haram from IS, but still called its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "caliph". | |
| He said that some in Boko Haram had stopped him communicating with al-Baghdadi. | |
| "I was asked to send my ideology in writing to the caliph but it was manipulated by some people in order to achieve their own selfish interests," he added, describing a coup attempt against him. | |
| He said he had sent eight different letters to IS leaders but they did not act on them, only to hear the news that he had been replaced. | |
| He then described al-Barnawi and his followers as polytheist. | |
| Shekau had been accused of hoarding food and ammunition and also of driving away IS military advisers. | |
| BBC's Abuja bureau editor Naziru Mikailu says this split is likely to have a major impact on the way the group operates and could be a turning point in the fight against the insurgents. | |
| Boko Haram at a glance: | Boko Haram at a glance: |
| Shekau took over as the group's leader after its founder, Muhammad Yusuf, died in Nigerian police custody in July 2009. | |
| Under his leadership Boko Haram became more radical, carried out more killings and swore allegiance to IS in March 2015. | |
| In numerous videos, Shekau taunted the Nigerian authorities, celebrating the group's violent acts, including the abduction of the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014. | |
| Nigeria's army has claimed to have killed him on several occasions, and he has not appeared in a video since Boko Haram aligned itself with IS. |