Abubakar Shekau reportedly died recently after a fatal clash with soldiers last June.

The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State on Monday, August 19, 2013 announced that the leader of the outlawed Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Muhammad Shekau, might have died as a result of injuries sustained during a recent military onslaught on his group, Thisday newspaper reported yesterday, August 20, 2013.

JTF Spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, said in a statement that intelligence reports revealed that Abubakar Shekau died of gunshot wounds sustained in a clash with Special Military Operation Forces (SMOF) in Sambisa Game Reserve in Borno State on June 30, 2013. Nigeria’s Military Defence Headquarters in the capital, Abuja, however refused to comment on the report, though a source said they were well aware of the information.

The training camps and hideouts of the terrorist were located 55 km southeast of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Shekau was mortally wounded in the clash and was reportedly sneaked into Amchidé, a border community in Cameroon’s Far North Region for treatment, but never recovered. Lt. Col. Musa further said Shekau might have died between July 25 and August 3, 2013.

Reacting to a video released on August 13, 2013 purportedly by Shekau in which he claimed responsibility for recent attacks, the spokesman said the recording was dramatised by an impostor “to hoodwink sect members to continue their acts of terrorism and to deceive undiscerning minds.” Earlier on August 14, 2013, the military said it killed Boko Haram's second-in-command, Momodu Bama, alias ‘Abu Saad.’ Correspondents however say there has been no independent confirmation of either Shekau's or Bama's death.  

According to the BBC, the leader of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram was said to have been a fearless loner who was complex and paradoxical. Fondly called ‘imam’ or leader by his followers, Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was born in Shekau village in Nigeria's north-eastern Yobe State. Some said he was 35 or 36, while others claimed he was 44 years old. The US government recently offered a reward of Seven million Dollars (about FCFA 3.4 billion) for information on his location. Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram became more radical and carried out more killings.