By Peter Omopo
The Niger Republic army has confirmed the killing of a senior Boko Haram commander, Bakura, during a military operation in the Lake Chad basin.
In a statement on Thursday, the army said Bakura, a splinter leader loyal to late Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau, was eliminated in a “surgical operation” carried out on an island in the Diffa region last week.
According to the statement, Bakura, identified as Ibrahim Mahamadu, about 40 years old and originally from Nigeria, was killed in targeted airstrikes on August 15. “Very early in the morning of August 15, an air force fighter aircraft launched three targeted and successive strikes on the positions Bakura used to occupy in Shilawa,” the army noted.
The commander, who had refused to align with the rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), had moved with his fighters to the islands on Niger’s side of Lake Chad, where he maintained influence.
Bakura joined Boko Haram over 13 years ago and rose to leadership following Shekau’s death during factional clashes in May 2021.
Boko Haram’s insurgency, launched in northeast Nigeria in 2009, has killed an estimated 40,000 people and displaced more than two million. The violence has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, with Niger first experiencing attacks in Bosso, a Lake Chad town, in 2015.
The Niger army described Bakura as a “feared leader,” adding that his death marks a significant blow to the group’s activities in the region.
