Report claimed Shekau has been killed AFTER leader Shekau replaced by pro-peace deputy, Chad's president says
Boko Haram’s Shekau Replaced as Leader, Chad’s Deby Says
Abubakar Shekau has been replaced by Mahamat Daoud as head of the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Chad’s President Idriss Deby said.
Daoud wants to negotiate with Nigeria’s government, he said in remarks broadcast Wednesday on state-owned radio.
“The war will be short,” Deby said. “It will end before the end of the year and Boko Haram will disappear with the establishment of the joint force,” he said, referring to plans to boost co-ordination among West African troops.
Chad, Niger and Cameroon are part of a multinational force to counter the growing threat that Boko Haram poses in the region. The group’s home ground is northeastern Nigeria, where it has killed thousands of people in a six-year campaign to establish its version of Shariah, or Islamic law.
“We have to take this with extreme caution, especially against the background of the phantom negotiations we had last year spearheaded by Chad,” said Freedom Onuoha, a research fellow at the National Defence College in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. “The last administration was desperate to bring an end to the insurgency before the elections and those negotiations were a sham. The guys that came to negotiate had no links with Boko Haram.”
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