Nigerian local media report the death of, Abubakar Shekau, longtime leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram armed group.
The local media cite the intelligence report, although the details are murky. This is not the first time Shekau has been reported dead, however, the previous announcement of his death, all proved to be wrong.
Shekau detonated his suicide vest when rival fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) tried to capture him in his hideout in Sambisa forest in northeastern Nigeria, the local media further claim.
Aware of the previous announcements being wrong, this time the Nigerian army has said it is investigating the reports and has yet to issue a definitive statement.
“What a Shekau death means is the Islamic State [ISWAP] is set to come out as the dominant player in the other side of the conflict, which of course means more problems for the Nigerian military,” said Confidence MacHarry, a geopolitical security analyst at Lagos-based SMB Intelligence, AlJazeera quotes.
Nigeria's military has struggled to contain the BokoHaram over the year which has led to more than 30,000 people dying in the West African region including the countries of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, besides Nigeria.
If Shekau has indeed been killed and ISWAP fighters are responsible, some analysts say it will further reduce Nigerians’ confidence in the country’s military to rout the fighters and end the conflict.
“The first implication [of Shekau’s killing at the hands of ISWAP] for national security is a larger interpretation about the capacity of the Nigerian state,” Freedom Onuoha, a counterterrorism expert and senior lecturer at the University of Nigeria told Al Jazeera.
“It also shows that the people’s lack of confidence in the capacity of the national security forces to rein in criminal actors would decline further,” Al Jazeera quotes Onuoha.
