Shekau Disguises, Flees Nigeria As Military Deploys Special Forces After Him

Amid reports that the Nigeria military has deployed its special force units to track the wanted Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, there are firm indications that he may have fled Nigeria through the help of Islamic State (ISIS) groups operating in East and North Africa.
This reported by The Sun, who revealed that Shekau is on the run following the recent loss of his group’s caliphate headquarters, Gwoza, to Nigerian troops and the invasion of Sambisa Forest by a detachment of the nation’s special force units deployed from their base in Makurdi, Benue state.
According to dependable military intelli­gence sources who disclosed these details to the media outfit, Shekau had to send representatives to ISIS affiliates with strongholds in East and North Africa to pave the way for his escape to their region, from where he intends to coordi­nate his group’s activities or ultimately relocate to ISIS headquarters in the Middle East.

READ ALSO: The Hideout Of Abubakar Shekau Remains A Mirage
One of the sources disclosed that “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.”
The military chief also stated that “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.”
In an attempt to es­cape the heat of on-going military operations in northeast Nigeria, Shekau reportedly has in the last few weeks changed his physical ap­pearance dramatically. “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.
READ ALSO: Buhari, Shekau Miss TIME Celebration
Reports also indicated that Shekau had stayed in crisis-ridden Northern Mali to coordinate the training and opera­tions of the militant group before they were flushed out of there by a joint French and Af­rican force, which included Nigerian troops. He thereafter crossed the porous border to join his foot soldiers in Borno state.