CHADIAN PRESIDENT ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO ABUBAKAR SHEKAU: SURRENDER OR BE KILLED!

 

President Idriss Deby of Chad  has said he knows the hideout of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, and has vowed that the leader of the insurgent group will be killed if he fails to surrender.

According to president Deby at a recent press conference in N'djamena, the capital of Chad. “It is in Abubakar Shekau’s interest to surrender, we know where he is. If he refuses to give himself up, he will suffer the same fate as his comrades,” 

Accordingly, Mr. Deby vowed to “wipe out” Boko Haram, which is responsible for more than 15,000 deaths, and is infamous for declaring an islamic caliphate in Gwoza, North-East Nigeria.

The Chadian Army  announced earlier this week that it retook the key town of Dikwa in Borno State and according to Mr Deby,  Shekau reportedly fled Dikwa after his troops chased out Boko Haram fighters on February 17.

According to the AFP, the Chadian army at the time said two of its soldiers and 117 Boko Haram Islamists were killed in the fighting.

In president Deby's words, “We are going to win the war and we are going to wipe out Boko Haram, contrary to what certain media think. The Chadian and Niger forces will continue their mission to finally put an end to this shadowy group,” 

In recent times,  Mr. Deby has been accused of providing a safe haven for these same Boko Haram insurgents, and was purportedly the mediator in a phony ceasefire between the Nigerian government and the sect in 2014.

It however remains to be seen how this particular episode of the latest Counter-Insurgency operations by Nigeria and its allies will unfold as in time past, there have been accusations and counter-accusations on the fate, identity and whereabouts of Shekau, the shadowy leader of the Boko Haram. In some quarters, it is believed there have been more than one "Shekau"since 2013, while in others, Mr. Shekau has remained in hiding since his group started out in 2009 targeting civilians, security officials, villages, schools, markets and places of worship. 

It would be recalled that in 2014, there were strong claims by both the Nigerian and Cameroonian Armies that shekau had been killed, albeit in different circumstances around the same period in September 2014. Later, the Nigerian Army, backed by videographic evidence proved it did kill "shekau", albeit a clone. It was revealed that the man killed was one Bashir Mohammed, a high-ranking Boko Haram commander who, as it was, doubled as " Abubakar Shekau" in some of the group's propaganda videos. Earlier in 2013, the Nigerian Army had also killed one shekau who had died in Amchide, Cameroon, as a result of fatal bullet wounds sustained in battle with members of the JTF who had stormed his hideout at the time. 

Futhermore, there have also been discrepancies in the appearances of Shekau in his  videos, as sometimes he has appeared stocky, lean, muscular, composed, deranged, straggly-beared, well-groomed, displaying a good command of English, and at other times barely able to speak coherent English, amongst others, lending strong credence to the school of thought that there really is more than one Shekau.

Of recent, increased military operations by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have apparently incapacitated the operational capabilities of Boko Haram, with Nigerian forces recovering several towns held by the group, as well as destroying several Armoured vehicles, while also recovering  weapons of all shapes and sizes from the terrorists.

In particular, the deployment of the Battle Armoured T-72 AV tanks, MRAP APCS' (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Armoured Personnel Carriers), BTR-4 infantry fighting vehicles and other sophisticated, modern military hardware at the frontlines by the Nigerian Army, as well as the highly-coordinated airstrikes by the Nigerian Airforce on the terrorists' locations, supported by the courageous troops of the allied forces holding ground effectively along the border areas, as well as crossing into Nigeria, in some instances, has greatly turned the tide in favour of the Nigerian troops as hitherto strongholds of the terrorists have been liberated, with the Boko Haram members suffering very heavy casualties. At the moment, the terrorists are running helter-skelter in all directions, desperate for a way out of the kill zone. Some have even resorted to disguising as women just so as to escape the battle-hardened, no-nonsense, combat-proficient Nigerian soldiers. (So it seems, the much-feared, jazzed-up, drug-addict terrorists are really sissies after all...God bless  the MRAP, T-72 tanks, Gazelle and Puma attack Helicopters and all the other equipment that have shown that Nigeria is not ready to cede any of its territory to scum! Even "shekau 3" is rumored to be in hiding, shaking in his boots, looking for a way out of the hot zone. 

Adding another interesting dimension to the whole plot is the recent spat between certain members of the two front-line political parties in the forth-coming general elections in Nigeria, who have been busy accusing each other of being the original creative minds behind the shekau character, waiting to bring to an end the soap opera, just in time for the general elections, thus indicating that one way or the other, "Shekau" will indeed cease to exist in the shortest possible time!

So, just as the popular saying goes, "surely as the sun rises, so also does it set". I believe that wherever he is at this moment, even Mr Shekau must know that one way or the other, indeed his "sun" has now set and the end is now at hand.

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