Boko
Haram jihadist group has denied any suggestion that it might negotiate with the
Federal Government.
This
is coming just about a week after its leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in March
that his time as the head of the group might be coming to an end.
The
previous video showed Shekau, who appeared thin and spiritless, delivering his
message without his usual fiery manner.
This
had prompted speculation from the Army that the Islamist group was on the verge
of collapse in the face of a sustained military counter-insurgency.
However,
in a Friday video posted on YouTube, which showed men holding AK-47s and posing
in front of Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks and a lorry mounted with a military
cannon, Boko Haram maintained that it was still a potent fighting force and
would not surrender.
According
to an AFP report, a masked man in camouflage said in a prepared script in Hausa
that, “You should know that there is no truce, there are no negotiations, there
is no surrender. This war between us will not stop.”
The
video, of markedly better quality than Shekau’s and including Arabic subtitles,
featured nine masked Boko Haram fighters standing on sandy ground in an
undisclosed desert location.
It
is, however, unclear whether Shekau was among the masked people in the video.
“Shekau
is still the head of the ‘West African wing’,” said the masked man, who likened
the sect to the Islamist insurgents in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Boko
Haram, which has killed over 20,000 people and displaced more than two million
people from their homes, had pledged allegiance to ISIS in March 2015.
Meanwhile,
the Nigerian Army has won back a number of territories from the militants,
rescuing thousands of people who had been living under the sect’s control.
Commenting
on the new video, an Africa security specialist, Ryan Cummings, said, “The
(new) video appears to confirm collaboration between Boko Haram and the Islamic
State group. The production quality bears the hallmarks of the Islamic State’s
media wing.”
FOR MORE STORIES VISIT CKN NEWS SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:
Email:cknnews1@gmail.com
Twitter: @CKNNigeria
Facebook: CKNNigeria
CKN NEWS Hotline: 08080054001
Whatsapp: 08099677755
BBM : 2BE329DF
Website: www.cknnigeria.com
Tags
Politics