The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram terrorist group, has killed three of its top leaders for attempting to soften the rules guiding the terrorist group’s mode of operation.
According to Audu Bulama Bukarti, a subsahara Africa analyst at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the ISWAP leaders — Idris Al-Barnawi, Abu Maryam and Abu Zainab – were killed by commanders who perceived the trio as being compromised for changing regulations they initiated.
“The new regulation required fighters to stop pursuing soldiers that run away during attacks and stop killing captured soldiers,” Mr. Bukarti, who was recently threatened by Abubakar Shekau – the leader of another Boko Haram faction – wrote in a tweet. “However, the commanders felt the rules were too soft and accused the trio of compromising. This led to their summary and execution.”
This is not the first time ISWAP, a West African affiliate of the Islamic State would experience internal feuds. In 2019, Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi, the son of the founder of Boko Haram, Yusuf Muhammed, was sacked after a meeting held in Kwalaram by all ISWAP commanders. He was accused of continuing with the soft approach of his second-in-command, Mamman Nur, who had been killed in August 2018, by his lieutenants for pocketing the alleged ransom for kidnapped Dapchi girls. A source told France 24 that unlike Mamman Nur, Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi was not killed because the commanders feared the crisis that would emerge as a result of killing the son of the founder of Boko Haram. He was sacked in order to make way for a new leader, Idris Al-Barnawi also known as Abu Abdullahi Ibn Umar Albarnawi who has now been murdered.
ISWAP has been in turmoil since it split from Abubakar Shekau led terror group in 2016. While Shekau’s group attacks civilians and the military indiscriminately – one of the reasons for the break up, Al-Barnawi’s faction focuses its attacks on the military.
Security analysts are speculating that the newly appointed leaders of ISWAP, Abba Shayima and Lawal Abubakar, might launch attacks on military targets to prove to the commanders and followers that they are loyal to the cause.
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