1. Another #BokoHaram thread, this time about #ISWAP’s Abu Musab al-Barnawi audio about the death of #Shekau (Abu Musab is chatty these days). He says that Shekau was attacked in his markaz and fled, and escaped capture for several days.
2. ISWAP fighters tried to convince Shekau to surrender, but he blew himself up.
3. Abu Musab reiterates his earlier statement that they told Shekau “we didn't come to kill you, come and repent and obey the orders of Amirul mumineen. In his wisdom, he may reappoint you as a leader and we are ready to accept his position”.
4. Barnawi mentions receiving an order from the Caliph about Shekau, two or three days before the Eid ul fitr (13 May). Shekau was dead on 18 or 19 May. That was fast. That must have been not the order for the entry into Sambisa, but for the final attack on Shekau’s markaz.
5. Still no IS pronouncement re: the recent events, from Abu Musab’s return to Shekau’s death. Is this all really sanctioned & ordered by the Caliph, or is Barnawi just using the name?
6. When Abu Musab was replaced in 2019, his successor claimed that the Caliph had decided, but there never was any pronouncement by the Caliph.
7. Barnawi mentions a subsequent attack against ISWAP territory by Shekau loyalists: “Now that we were able to go to their Sambisa and succeeded in killing their leader, they came here and carried out indiscriminate killings of women and children and the weak ones.”
8. This probably refers to the reported Bakura attack on the Lake Chad area. Barnawi mentions a retaliatory operation under way against the raiders – he asks all supporters to pray for that.
9. Barnawi also talks about brothers in Marwa – probably Maroua in the Cameroonian Far North – who have been defenceless viz. Shekau attacks. It is true that Shekau raiders have attacked Nigerian refugees repeatedly. Perhaps some have been indeed ISWAP sympathisers.
10. While reiterating his criticism of Shekau (he once called him a “tumour”), Barnawi spends a lot of time preaching against disobedience to God… it seems like a conciliatory, soft attempt to call people to follow orders. Barnawi trying to be gentle?
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