Top Boko Haram Commander, Abubakar Sarki commanding the dreaded Sambisa Forest in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria has been killed according to Daily Post.
Nigerian Army (Operation Hadin Kai) confirmed that troops, following intelligence, attacked the convoy of the late Shekau-led faction Commander, Abubakar Sarki and killed him alongside his fighters in a bloody exchange of gun fire within the fringes of the Sambisa forest.
Zagazola Makama, an expert in counter-insurgency and security, revealed this to newsmen in Maiduguri.
According to him, intelligence information had it that Abubakar Sarki and his team were heading towards Abu-Ubaida’s camp to engage their rival fighters from the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), in a battle of supremacy.
“A ground assessment confirmed that three gun trucks with all their occupants were completely destroyed, while the remaining five vehicles and terrorists including Abubakar Sarki escaped.
“But luck ran out of them as troops after sighting a moving convoy conveying Abubakar Sarki and an unconfirmed number of fighters, the army deployed a massive artillery gun resulting in devastating hits on the terrorists.” He said.
It was gathered that the terrorists though aborted the mission, evacuated the dead and wounded fighters towards the axis between Pulka in Gwoza Local Government Area and Banki on the border of Bama and Cameroon.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Nigerian Army and Commander Sector 1 North East Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK), Maj Gen Waidi Shaibu, who led the operations on Saturday at Yuwe location, within the Konduga Local Government Area of Borno is also said to be in pursuit of the fleeing terrorists around Gwoza and Bama axis in Borno State.
The fight between the Boko Haram faction of the late Abubakar Shekau and ISWAP-led submission to ISIS had intensified with the ISWAP fighters hunting their Boko Haram rivals during the daytime while the Boko Haram members are said to hunt ISWAP fighters at night having understood the terrain in the Sambisa forest.
