By William Tucker

Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Harem Islamist movement, has recently been declared dead by the Nigerian military. This information was originally confined to an internal Nigerian intelligence report, but the information was made public by the military. Reports suggest that Shekau was involved in a fire-fight against the Nigerian military and was wounded in the action. Following this report information gets a little blurry. The military claims that Shekau was moved across the border into Cameroon for treatment and died from his wounds sometime between July 25 and August 3; however no evidence, nor methodology of collecting this intelligence has been made public. Though that is no surprise that the military is protecting the sources and methods of intelligence collection, it would be beneficial for the public campaign against Boko Harem as a demonstration of the military’s progress in combating the escalating violence. Though violence has continued unabated since August 3, definitive proof of Shekau’s demise could have at least a marginal impact on the group. For its part, Boko Harem now has an incentive to prove that Shekau is still alive – if that is the case – as a general purpose media coup. Either way, violence will likely continue apace in Nigeria. Killing a single militant leader will do little in combating the myriad of challenges the country faces.