Abubakar Shekau Dead: Boko Haram Leader Reportedly Killed In Bombing

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is reportedly dead, after the Cameroon army claimed to have killed the radical leader who has terrorized several African states and led the kidnapping of more than 200 young girls.

The army released a statement Sunday, claiming that Shekau was killed in a bombing campaign. The army also published a photograph of a dead man who resembled Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. The picture, published in the Nigerian online newspaper Ynaija, can be seen here.

The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has been active in many countries, including Nigeria where earlier this year members abducted 200 school girls, many of whom are still being held.

The group, whose name translates roughly to “Western Education Is Forbidden,” has also launched many attacks against schools, leaving hundreds of students and teachers dead.

But the reports that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was killed have not been verified, and in the past security forces have claimed other times that he was killed. On Wednesday, the Nigerian military claims it killed Shekau, about 70 miles from where the Cameroon army claims he was killed in bombings on Sunday.

African news source ChannelsTV reported that Boko Haram troop movements would seem to confirm that Abubakar Shekau was among terrorists killed in a bombing campaign.

The outlet noted, “There seems to be a high possibility that leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, has been killed.”

“A source at the Defence Headquarters, on Sunday, revealed that Shekau is among the militants killed by the troops in Konduga, Borno.

In the last few days, there have been several attempts by terrorists to gain entry into Konduga, which the Nigerian troops, have continued to foil.

The intention of that desperate attempt, was for the terrorists to recover the bodies of their prominent fighters, such as Abubakar Shekau and others, who had been killed in previous encounters in Konduga.”

Nigerian forces are now looking into the claim that Abubakar Shekau has been killed, with at least one official suggesting that the man killed could have been a body double.