Boko Haram leader appears in new video, says group is in good health

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, has released a video message on Tuesday, December 2, 2017, claiming several attacks carried out by the terrorist group over the festive period.
In his
first video message in months, Shekau dismissed the government's
insistence that the group is defeated, claiming that security agencies can do nothing to harm the group's operations.
The
leader of Boko Haram's biggest faction spoke in Hausa language through
the 31-minute duration of the video where he claimed attacks in Maiduguri, Gamboru and Damboa.
He said, "We
are in good health and nothing has happened to us Nigerian troops,
police and those creating mischief against us can't do anything against
us, and you will gain nothing.
"We carried out the attacks in Maiduguri, in Gamboru, in Damboa. We carried out all these attacks."
The video displayed footage from a Christmas Day attack on a military checkpoint in Molai village on the outskirts of Maiduguri with terrorists shown shooting at soldiers from the back of battered pickup trucks.
In his New Year's Day address on Monday, January 1, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari insisted that "we have since beaten Boko Haram", even though he also admitted that "isolated attacks still occur" because it's impossible to "prevent determined criminals from committing terrible acts of terror" just as it happens in "even the best-policed countries" across the world.
Boko Haram menace
Since
the insurgency of the terrorist group escalated after a 2009 crackdown
by the military, Boko Haram, chiefly under the leadership of Shekau, has
been responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the
displacement of more than 2.5 million scattered across Internally
Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country and its neighbours.
After a massive military operation resulted in the displacement of the group from its primary base in the infamous Sambisa Forest, it has resorted to suicide bomb attacks on soft targets and carried out daring attacks on military bases, with hundreds of captives still unaccounted for.
Boko Haram leader appears in new video, says group is in good health
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