A prominent leader of the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has slaughtered thousands of people in West Africa, was killed by a targeted airstrike, according to the Niger army.
The army said in a state television broadcast Thursday that Ibrahim Bakoura was killed in an Aug. 15 strike in the Lake Chad region that also claimed the lives of “dozens of terrorists” and senior Boko Haram leaders. According to the army, Bakoura, who was in his mid-40s, had been “tracked for several weeks” prior to the attack.
In order to combat Western education and enforce their extreme interpretation of Islamic law, Boko Haram, a homegrown organization of jihadis from neighboring Nigeria that is regarded as one of the deadliest armed groups in the world, took up guns in 2009.According to the United Nations, the fighting has spread to Nigeria’s northern neighbors, particularly Niger, and has killed some 35,000 civilians while uprooting over 2 million more.
Wassim Nasr, a Sahel expert and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, advised that news of the deaths of top militants should be treated with suspicion. He pointed out that governments have no ability to confirm remote airstrikes and that Bakoura has been reported dead at least three times in the past.
Following the death of Abubakar Shekau, the group’s longtime leader, in 2021—who was repeatedly falsely declared dead—Boko Haram split into two factions in the ensuing succession battle. 2022 saw Bakoura take power.
