Nigeria - Boko Haram kingpin, Abubakar Shekau, might have fled the country after the Nigerian army deployed special forces to track him down, The Sun reports.
Shekau may have fled Nigeria through the help of Islamic State (ISIS) groups operating in East and North Africa, reports say.
According to a military source,
Shekau “having discovered that he was being tracked through his Thuraya satellite phone, Shekau recently dropped the line and handset
totally to evade capture. But the last satellite image of him
and other intelligence pieced together by forces on the
battle frontline show his desperation to escape from the
country to parts of East Africa or North Africa where ISIS is
having some footholds.”
"As part of moves being made by Shekau, he now relocates with fewer guards and limited
number of lieutenants knowing his movement
schedule. This is to frustrate
intelligence gathering efforts by security forces and avoid
attracting the focus of satellite
image capturing technology
deployed by some foreign
super powers and shared with
the Nigerian security forces.”
“A recent intelligence from
one of our foreign partners
shows the Boko Haram leader
clean shaven which totally
alters his look. That heightens
our curiosity about his motive, before we got other
evidence that pointed to the
fact that he was trying to cross
the border”, the source added.