Chadian Security Nabs Son of Boko Haram’s Founder & 5 Others As US Commends Nigeria For Arrest of Terror Kingpins

By Barth Ikiebe

Chadian Security Nabs Boko Haram Founder’s Son & 5 Others

A young son of Boko Haram’s founder, Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, has been arrested in Chad.

It was gathered that the Boko Haram founder’s son was apprehended in Chad, where he was allegedly leading a jihadist cell.

AFP quoted an intelligence source and a former insurgent as disclosing that Yusuf was arrested alongside five other suspected Boko Haram members.

The Islamist group has sown terror around the Lake Chad region for around 15 years and has mounted increasingly brazen attacks on villages and military bases in recent months.

Chadian Police confirmed having arrested six Boko Haram members, but could not say if one of them was the older Yusuf’s son.

A Nigerian intelligence source in the Lake Chad region told newsmen at the weekend that they received a report of the arrest of a six-man jihadist cell in Chad.

“The team was headed by a Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf,” the source noted.

The source, however, said that the cell belonged to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, a rival offshoot that splintered off from Boko Haram over ideological disagreements.

The source added that Yusuf was an infant when his father was killed in 2009 during a military crackdown on Boko Haram that left some 800 people dead, giving his age as 18.

Yusuf, who goes by the alias, Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye, is the younger brother of ISWAP leader Habib Yusuf, alias Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi.

A former lieutenant of Yusuf’s father, who has denounced Boko Haram but has knowledge of the group’s inner workings, also said Yusuf had been arrested.

“He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number,” he said.

Chadian Police said they had arrested “bandits who operate in the city, they are undocumented, they are members of Boko Haram,” Police spokesman Paul Manga confirmed this in N’djamena.

He stated : “the cell was arrested a few months ago.”

Meanwhile, the United States government has commended Nigeria for the arrest of two terrorist leaders of the Ansaru sect, Mahmud Muhammad Usman, aka Abu Bara’a, and Mahmud al-Nigeri, aka Mallam Mamuda.

The commendation was given on Monday by the United States Mission in Nigeria on its X handle.

“We commend the Nigerian Government and security forces on the successful arrest of wanted #Ansaru leaders, Mahmud Muhammad Usman (aka Abu Bara’a) and Mahmud al-Nigeri (aka Mallam Mamuda).

“This is a significant forward in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and extremism,” the Mission noted.

The Nigerian government had announced the arrest of al-Ngeri and Usman on Saturday through the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, at a news conference in Abuja.