In a field already crowded with bloodthirsty braggarts, the leader of Boko Haram has achieved the dubious distinction of becoming arguably the most menacing figure ever to appear in a jihadist video.
Vicious and sneering in equal measure, Abubakar Shekau’s cackling laughter and rambling manner give him more of the air of a psychopath than a militant. By comparison, the late Osama bin Laden comes across as almost measured. And as Nigeria has learned the hard way in the last five years, his terrifying on-screen persona is no act. Shekau is considered the group’s most ruthless commander by far, and has played a key role in taking it down the path of all-out war on the rest of Nigeria. While it is the kidnapping of the schoolgirls that has earned him world notoriety, his group is already believed to have murdered up 5,000 people in the last five years, many of them innocent villagers.
Born in north-east Nigeria and believed to be around 40, Shekau is a member of the Kanuri ethnic group, who are spread throughout central Africa, and who were among the region’s first embracers of Islam in the early Middle Ages.
Today, a minority of militant Kanuri are said to make up the bulk of Boko Haram’s followers, and while the group originally pursued largely local grievances, under Shekau it has adopted much of al-Qaeda’s ideology.
He took over after the 2009 death of Boko Haram’s founder, Ahmed Yusuf, and has since shut down all dialogue with the Nigerian government. More moderate commanders who have argued with him have often been killed. Indeed, another Boko Haram affiliate, Ansuru, which has kidnapped foreigners and published videos of their executions online, cut ties with Shekau altogether because they found him too difficult to deal with.
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