Shekau Flees Nigeria As Military Deploys Special Forces After Him

Boko Haram kingpin, Abubakar Shekau, might have fled the country after the Nigerian army deployed special forces to track him down, The Sun reports.



Shekau may have fled Nigeria through the help of Islamic State (ISIS) groups operating in East and North Africa, reports say.

According to a military source, Shekau “having discovered that he was being tracked through his Thuraya satellite phone, Shekau recently dropped the line and handset totally to evade capture. But the last satellite image of him and other intelligence pieced together by forces on the battle frontline show his desperation to escape from the country to parts of East Africa or North Africa where ISIS is having some footholds.”

"As part of moves being made by Shekau, he now relocates with fewer guards and limited number of lieutenants knowing his movement schedule. This is to frustrate intelligence gathering efforts by security forces and avoid attracting the focus of satellite image capturing technology deployed by some foreign super powers and shared with the Nigerian security forces.”

“A recent intelligence from one of our foreign partners shows the Boko Haram leader clean shaven which totally alters his look. That heightens our curiosity about his motive, before we got other evidence that pointed to the fact that he was trying to cross the border”, the source added.