HE MAY BE DEAD - LT. COL. SAGIR MUSA

Nigeria's militant Islamist leader Abubakar Shekau may have been
killed by the security forces during a shoot-out, an army spokesman
has...
said.
An "intelligence report" showed that Shekau, the leader of the Boko
Haram group, may have died between 25 July and 3 August, Lt-Col Sagir
Musa said.
Boko Haram, which has waged an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009, has
not commented on the statement.
The US had put a bounty of $7m (£4.6m) on Shekau's head.
'Imposter'
The intelligence report suggested that Shekau was shot on 30 June,
when soldiers raided a Boko Haram base at Sambisa Forest in
north-eastern Nigeria.
"Shekau was mortally wounded in the encounter and was sneaked into
Amitchide - a border community in Cameroon fortreatment... It is
greatly believed that Shekau might have died between 25 July to 3
August 2013," Col Musa said.
A video of Shekau, released on 13 August, was "dramatised by an
imposter to hoodwink the sect members to continue with the terrorism",
he added.
On 14 August, the military said it had killed Boko Haram's
second-in-command, Momodu Bama, also known by his alias"Abu Saad".
Correspondents say there is no independent confirmation of Shekau's or
Bama's death.
Thousands of people have died since Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009.
A claim in 2009 that Shekau had been killed turned out to be untrue, they add.
He became leader of Boko Haram after its founder, Muhammad Yusuf, died
in police custody in the same year.
The insurgency became far more brutal under Shekau's leadership, with
Boko Haram carrying out a wave of bombings and abductions, including
that of foreigners, in its campaign tocreate an Islamic state across
Nigeria, correspondents say.
In May, President Goodluck Jonathan declared an emergency inthree
north-eastern states, saying the group threatened Nigeria's existence.