Reports have it that the Islamic State (IS) militant group has announced that its West African affiliate Boko Haram has a new leader.
BBC reported that Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who was previously spokesman for the Nigerian-based Islamists, is featured in the latest issue of an IS magazine.
It does not say what has become of the group’s former leader Abubakar Shekau.He was last heard from in an audio message last August, saying he was alive and had not been replaced – an IS video released in April said the same.
In the interview in IS’s weekly Arabic magazine al-Naba, Mr Barnawi said his group “remained a force to be reckoned with” and said it had been drawing new recruits.