A latest video from Boko Haram claims the group still exist in Nigeria and the announcement of President Muhammadu Buhari last Saturday is not true.
A man in the 25-minute video claims himself to be Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Nigerian Islamist militant group. He said the government was unable to flush them out of Sambasa forest.
The footage is poor and hence it is hard to identify whether the man is Shekau. He adds, “We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere.”
The Nigerian military has frequently claimed to have killed or injured Shekau in recent past.
Meanwhile, army spokesman Sani Usman said the video is used as propaganda by the Boko Haram to keep the fear among people of their presence in the country.
Security experts say the group has multiple bases as their attacks are common in neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad too.
Boko Haram gained control northern parts of Nigeria in 2009 and since then has killed over 15,000 people. The group aims at creating an Islamic state. In the seven-year insurgency more than two million people have been displaced too.
Meanwhile, it is also learned from several reports the group is regrouping in Taraba and Bauchi states, which are south of the Borno state. They will be taking advantage of long running conflict in the country between Muslim nomadic cattle herders and sedentary Christian farmers.
In 2014 the Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 teenaged school girls from a boarding school in Chibok and was believed to have been holding them in the Sambisa Forest.
