An army spokesman said the armed forces had carried out a number of ground and air operations against ISWAP positions.
The Nigerian military announced today that it had killed the new leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), two weeks after it was announced that its predecessor, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, had been killed .
ISWAP is an organization that split from Boko Haram and then turned against it. Both groups are fighting the Nigerian armed forces and the conflict has spread to neighboring countries , Chad and Cameroon . According to the United Nations, 300,000 people have been killed and millions displaced and are now dependent on international humanitarian aid to survive.
An army spokesman said the armed forces had carried out a number of ground and air operations against ISWAP positions, and that one of them had killed the group’s new leader, Malam Bako . In all, ” 38 terrorist elements ” were killed , he said.
So far, ISWAP has not confirmed the death of its leader.
If confirmed, then Bako would be the fourth Islamist leader to be killed this year, after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).
After Sekau’s death, thousands of Boko Haram fighters surrendered to the Nigerian Armed Forces.
