ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s top general said on Thursday that Abu Musab al-Barnawi, leader of the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), is dead.
“I can authoritatively confirm to you that Abu Musab is dead,” Lucky Irabor, the chief of defence staff, said without elaborating.
ISWAP was originally an offshoot of the Boko Haram insurgent group that has been fighting against the Nigerian armed forces for 12 years. The two militant groups later turned on each other.
The conflict between the insurgents and the armed forces has left about 300,000 dead.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah, writing by Estelle Shirbon, Editing by Andrew Heavens)
