Shekau Missing In a New Video Release By Boko Haram

The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram released a video online on Tuesday, rejecting the claims of the Nigerian military that it has been routed by a four-nation offensive, which doesn’t show Abubakar Shekau the group’s leader.

The speaker in the 10-minute message which was posted on the video-sharing site YouTube said “Most of our territory is still under our control”. He called Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, who have been battling the Islamists, “the lying coalition partners”.

The video bears the new logo “Islamic State in West Africa” and follows the Nigerian militants’ pledge of allegiance in an audio message in March to the IS group, that has overrun large parts of Syria and Iraq.