A man claiming to be Boko Haram leader
Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video,
contradicting Nigerian military reports that he
was killed, French news agency AFP reported
on Thursday.

In the video, a figure in boots and combat
fatigues who looks similar to the man claiming
to be Shekau in previous videos was seen.

“Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah
takes my breath,” he says in the northern
Hausa language, reported the news agency,
which normally receives Boko Haram tapes
first, before they are distributed online.
Nigeria’s military said last week that the man
who had been posing as Shekau in the group’s
growing number of videos had been killed in
clashes over the town of Konduga.

The military announced the death of Shekau a
year ago, saying he had died in battle. After
that, the man appearing in videos as Shekau
did look different from before, with a wider
nose, less defined bridge and a rounder face.

In the most recent video, Shekau says “nothing
will kill me until my days are over … Some
people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No,
I have one soul, by Allah,” AFP said.

Boko Haram, whose violent five-year campaign
for an Islamic state has killed thousands, has
in the past two months progressed from
bombings, raids and kidnappings to trying to
seize territory.

In his last video, the Shekau figure declared
the remote areas they control near Cameroon
as “Muslim territory”, echoing the declaration
of a caliphate by militants in Iraq and Syria.

But holding territory has also made them more
vulnerable to attacks by Nigerian forces backed
by fighter jets, security sources say. The
military said it inflicted heavy losses on the
Islamists in the past two weeks.

Bellicose as ever, Shekau stands on the back of
a pick-up truck, firing an anti-aircraft gun into
the air.

The video also shows people being stoned to
death and being given lashes, both traditional
Islamic punishments, AFP said. And it shows
Boko Haram fighters picking through the
wreckage of an air craft they claim to have
shot down. Nigeria’s military is still looking for
a war plane that went missing more than two
weeks ago


source: http://www.today.ng/news/boko-haram-new-video-shows-wreckage-of-missing-jet-allegedly-shot-down-people-being-stoned-to-death/