Ibrahim Mahamadu, popularly known as Bakoura, had led the terror group in the Lake Chad Basin since 2021, according to Niger’s military
Soldiers from Niger’s army have killed a leader of the Boko Haram jihadist group, the West African country’s military announced on Thursday.
The “notorious” Ibrahim Mahamadu, known as Bakoura, was neutralized during a “surgical operation” on Shilawa Island in Niger’s Diffa region, in the Lake Chad Basin near Niger’s borders with Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon, last week, according to a Nigerien Armed Forces statement.
“Very early in the morning of August 15 an air force fighter aircraft launched three targeted and successive strikes on the positions Bakoura used to occupy in Shilawa,” it stated. Several other militant leaders were also killed in the assault.
Diffa, in southeastern Niger, has long served as a staging ground and hideout for the Boko Haram group led by Bakoura. He reportedly moved his fighters to islands within Lake Chad after refusing to join the rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which broke away from Boko Haram in 2016 over ideological and leadership disputes.
According to the army, Bakoura, a Nigerian national, joined the terror group more than 13 years ago and assumed leadership after its former chief, Abubakar Shekau, was killed during infighting in 2021.
Boko Haram’s insurgency began in the 2000s in northeast Nigeria, with attacks against the government aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in the West African state. The group drew global attention in 2014 when its fighters abducted hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok village in Borno State. In response to frequent cross-border raids by the militants, the Lake Chad Basin countries — Niger, Chad, Nigeria, and Cameroon — established the Multinational Joint Task Force to coordinate military operations and curb the instability.
However, violence linked to the insurgents has continued to destabilize the region, and as of November 2024, UN estimates put the toll at 40,000 people killed in Nigeria alone and more than two million forced out of their homes.
