The head of the General Staff of the Nigerian Armed Forces, General Lucky Irabor, said today that Abu Musab Al Barnawi has died, the leader of the Islamic State Yihadist Organization of the West Africa Province (ISWAP, in its English acronym), a
dissident faction of the Nigerian group Boko Haram.
“I can confirm them with authority that Barnawi is dead, as simple as that, he is dead and staying dead,” said Irabor at a press conference in Abuya, the capital of the African country, without offering details about when, where and how did the
Yihadist leader, who is very little known, including his age and physical appearance.
However, ISWAP has not confirmed, to date, the death of its boss and, in the past, the Nigerian army has ensured having dejected Islamist leaders who have later reappeared alive.
The Islamic State of the Province of West Africa did confirmed last June the death of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, who supposedly immolated in May of this year being captured by that rival split.
According to an internal message that had access the Nigerian Middle ‘Humangle’, Al Barnawi himself corroborated Shekau’s death, whom he described in Hausa (one of the local Nigerian languages) as the “leader of disobedience and corruption”
.
ISWAP used to reproach the Boko Haram leader attempting against Muslims and civilian population, since it was during Shekau’s leadership when this group began to indiscriminately murder civilians and use children in suicidal attacks.
In recent years, the false death of Shekau was announced up to five occasions.
ISWAP has increased with its attacks the violence suffered by the northeast of the country, in addition to spurs the clashes between both factions.
In July 2009, the founder of Boko Haram, Muhammad Yusuf, who created the group in 2002 to denounce the abandonment of northern the country by the authorities, died in police custody and Shekau happened to him, who put into practice indiscriminate attacks against the population
Civil and committed suicidal with women and children.
Since then, the northeastern of the country suffers the violence of Boko Haram, who seeks to impose a state of Islamic court in Nigeria, a nation of Muslim majority in the north and predominantly Christian in the south.
In 2015, Shekau swore loyalty to the Islamic State Yihadist Organization (EI) and the group changed its name to ISWAP, but due to its brutality, the EI decided to dismiss it in 2016 and appointed the Barnawi leader, the eldest son of the founder and even
Then group spokesman, creating two factions: Boko Haram and Iswap.
Since the death of Shekau, ISWAP seems to have become the dominant Yihadist group in Nigeria, especially after the surrender of thousands of alleged members of Boko Haram to the Nigerian army.
More than 35,000 people have died and the figure of displacedos Rounds the two million for the bloody campaign of Boko Haram, according to the UN.
