The Nigerian military said Wednesday that more than 260 Boko Haram militants have surrendered in north-eastern Nigeria.
The military had ratcheted up offensive against Boko Haram in the remote northeast since the rebels seized several small towns and declared the area they control a “Muslim territory”.
Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade also disclosed that the military had killed the man posing as the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.
Mohammed Bashir is said to have appeared in the group’s videos but is thought to be an imposter.
According to the military account, 135 Boko Haram members surrendered with their weapons in Biu, Borno State, on Tuesday – and that 133 others surrendered elsewhere in north-eastern Nigeria and were currently being interrogated.
The military added Boko Harma had also been trying to take over the town of Konduga, near the Cameroon border, from Sept. 12-17 but had been repelled by air and land forces.
“In the course of those encounters, one Mohammed Bashir, who has been acting or posing on videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau … known as leader of the group, died,” Olukolade said.
Throughout the militants’ insurgency, which has morphed from a radical but relatively peaceful clerical movement into a bloodthirsty insurrection, a man claiming to be the Islamists’ leader, Abubakar Shekau, has periodically released videos of himself issuing threats and taunting the authorities.
One showed him claiming responsibility for the April abduction of 200 schoolgirls from the remote village of Chibok, which sparked an international outcry. They remain in captivity.
Nigeria’s military also released photographs of dozens of detainees sitting on the floor and the alleged body of the leader.
Shekau took over leadership of the movement after its founder Mohammed Yusuf died in police custody in 2009.
Nigeria’s military in August 2013 said Shekau may have died of gunshot wounds some weeks after a clash with soldiers between July 25 and Aug. 4 that year.
After that, the man appearing in videos appeared to look different, with a rounder, less narrow face and a wider nose.
Bashir “had been acting or posing in videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group”, he added.
The military however did not give any dates or locations for when they believe leader Shekau actually died.
The Boko Haram Islamist group, which has killed thousands in five years of hit-and-run attacks on military installations and civilians has grown increasingly ambitious in the past two months and started trying to take and hold ground in Africa’s largest oil producer.
Speaking at the United Nations Security Council meeting, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan urged the council to find more ways to combat the militant threat.
“Evidence has shown that Boko Haram is sourced largely from outside our country,” he said.
“Only by united action and firm resolve can we check this urgent threat to humanity and also build the enduring structures that will resist their re-emergence.”
“Boko Haram” means “Western education is forbidden” in Arabic, and the group frequently attacks schools and colleges, which it sees as a symbol of Western culture.
Boko Haram was behind the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state in April.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 2,000 civilians have been killed in the region this year.
With BBC, Reuters
