Boko Haram's Shekau says ‘My End Has Come’; Military says Battle Continues

Just hours after a video surfaced of the dreaded Abubakar Shekau calling for an end to their attacks, 16 women were said to have been abducted by suspected Boko Haram members in Adamawa State.

The member representing Michika/Madagali federal constituency in the House of Reps, Mr. Adamu Kamale, confirmed the abduction on Thursday.

A security source in the state said that the captives, comprising 14 women and two girls, were abducted since Tuesday evening.

The source said the news of the incident did not get to Yola, the state capital, because telecoms equipment that were destroyed by the sect in previous raids, had not been rebuilt.

“Fourteen women and two girls were abducted by Boko Haram in the Sabon Gari area of Madagali. The women were abducted while they were fetching water and doing fishing in the area,” he added.

The source said, “The members of the vigilance group that escorted them fled on sighting the Boko Haram who were in large number and were armed with heavy weapons.”

Two of the women were able to escape from the Boko Haram ambush while the rest were taken away.

The news of abduction of the women came just as the leader of the sect, Shekau, according to AFP appeared in a video on Thursday, telling his followers that his end had come.

Shekau was said to have called on his followers to embrace peace, but the video did not confirm.

In a message that contained none of the defiant bluster, taunts and denunciation of political leaders and will likely be interpreted as an admission of defeat, the dejected-looking Shekau declared in Hausa, “For me, the end has come.”

Shekau, who had in March 2015 pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in an audio message, added:
“This is my desire: that whoever sees this, will hear nothing but greetings between me and you. Only Allah knows the rest, as you believed (and) as you submitted. For me the end has come.

“This is only the message I want to send to you for you to understand that this is certainly I. This is why I did this.

“May Allah protect us so that no hypocrite stands between us. May Allah protect us from the devil so that he doesn’t achieve his evil among us. May Allah protect us and may we stand firm on the path of Allah. I thank my creator.”

But military sources say they would not be deceived by the so called Shekau video to stop the strike against all known Boko Haram hideout now that they are on the path of flushing them out of Nigeria.