Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, committed suicide | the Chronicle

The leader of the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, committed suicide during a fight against members of a rival jihadist group, Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) announced in a recording sent to the international press today.

“Shekau preferred to be humiliated in the hereafter to be humiliated on earth; he committed suicide by detonating an explosive”, said a voice similar to that of ISWAP leader Abu Musab Al Barnawi in a recording given to the AFP news agency by a source who usually broadcasts his statements.

Until this evening, Boko Haram had not commented on the versions of the death of its leader, which were under investigation by the Nigerian military.

ISWAP explained in the recording that it had sent its fighters to a Boko Haram enclave in Sambisa Forest, near the border with Cameroon, and that after seeing Shekau was sitting inside from his house he started shooting.

“From there he retreated and escaped, ran and hid in the bushes for five days. However, the fighters continued to look for him.», Explained the voice of the recording, in Saharan Kanuri language.

After finding it
, ISWAP fighters called on Shekau and his supporters to surrenderaccording to the recording, but the leader of Book Haram refused and committed suicide.

“We are very happy”, spoke up and added that Shekau was ”
someone who has committed terrorist acts and unimaginable atrocities. “

Boko Haram is a jihadist organization founded in Nigeria in 2009, which has extended its attacks to neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.