Boko Haram Fighters Clash Against Each Other in Borno

 

Reports making rounds on the online media reveal the leadership crack within the Boko Haram sect has led to open confrontations between two factions of the group.

 

According to source that spoke with AFP recently, the two factions loyal to Abubakar Shekau reported to be dead by the Nigerian army and the son of Boko Haram’s founder Mohammed Yusuf named Abu Musab al-Barnawi were involved in a fierce fight in Monguno area of Borno, north-eastern part of Nigeria.

 

Shekau has overtime asserted authority over the terrorist group that has ravaged Nigeria in the last 7 years leaving over 20,000 people dead and 2.6 million others displaced.

Sources say there have been deadly skirmishes between Boko Haram’s factions led by Abubakar Shekau and IS-backed Abu Musab al-Barnawi respectively.

Sources in North-East now say there have been deadly skirmishes between the two factions, even as Nigeria’s military seeks to finally rout the rebels in a sustained counter-offensive.

Last Thursday, several fighters from Shekau’s camp were said to have been killed in two separate gun battles with IS-backed Barnawi gunmen in the Monguno area of Borno State near Lake Chad.

Nigeria’s military declined to comment on the reported in-fighting when contacted by a reporter. But Mele Kaka, who lives in the area, told AFP that, “The Barnawi faction launched an offensive against the fighters of Shekau faction who were camped in Yele and Arafa villages.

“In Yele, the assailants killed three people from the Shekau camp, injured one and took one with them, while several others were killed in Arafa,” he told a correspondent via telpehone.

 

This development may come as good news to Nigerians as an internal crack will go a long way in crippling the potency of the sect that is still holding unto 217 Chibok girls abducted from their school in 2014 and currently using them as a bargaining chip to free their arrested commanders.