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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as Emir of Al Qaeda in Iraq PHOTOS: Reuters
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The leader of the West African branch of the Islamic State jihadist group, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, is dead. This was announced today by the highest Nigerian military, quoted by Reuters.
“I can authoritatively confirm to you that Abu Musab is dead,” Nigeria’s chief of defense, General Lucky Irabor, told reporters at the presidential residence in the capital, Abuja. He did not give details.
The Islamic State of West Africa is a branch of the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been fighting the Nigerian armed forces for 12 years. The two radical factions subsequently came into conflict with each other, Reuters notes.
The conflict in Nigeria between the Islamist insurgents and the army, which spread to the territory of neighboring Chad and Cameroon, killed about 300 thousand people and made millions of others dependent on humanitarian aid, BTA reports.
Al-Barnawi was originally part of the Boko Haram group, led by Abubakar Shekau, who swore allegiance to Islamic State in 2015. The following year, however, Islamic State declared al-Barnawi its leader in West Africa, according to Reuters.
Shekau opposed his decline and the two groups separated. Al-Barnawi transferred his fighters to the shores of Lake Chad, where they fortified their positions.
In June this year, al-Barnawi announced in an audio recording that his rival Shekau had died after detonating an explosive device while being pursued by fighters in the West African province of Islamic State after a battle.
After Shekau’s death, the Nigerian armed forces announced that thousands of Boko Haram fighters had surrendered.
In previous years, Nigerian authorities have erroneously declared Shekau’s death several times.
The Daily Trust, a newspaper from northern Nigeria, reported that Al Barnawi died in late August, citing unnamed sources. The publication pointed out that different sources give different versions of his death.
The Nigerian authorities did not provide more information.
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