By Safiyat Muhammed
A young man believed to be Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, the son of Boko Haram’s late founder, has been arrested in Chad along with five other suspected jihadists, The Bureau News has gathered.
According to security sources in the Lake Chad region, the 18-year-old was allegedly heading a jihadist cell linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) — a faction that emerged after splitting from Boko Haram over ideological differences.
The suspects were detained during a security operation carried out by Chadian authorities in N’Djamena.
Photographs obtained by AFP reportedly show a slim young man in a blue tracksuit — bearing a strong resemblance to the late Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf — standing among five older detainees.
Although Chadian police confirmed the arrest of six terror suspects, they declined to officially identify him as the son of the former Boko Haram leader.
A Nigerian intelligence officer based in the Lake Chad region told AFP that reports from the field identified the group’s leader as Muslim Yusuf.
“The team was headed by Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder,” the officer said.
Sources explained that the young Yusuf was still a baby when his father was killed in a Nigerian military crackdown in 2009, during which over 800 people were reported dead.
He is also believed to be the younger brother of ISWAP leader Habib Yusuf, better known as Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi, who has been a major figure in the Lake Chad insurgency.
A former lieutenant of Mohammed Yusuf, who has since left the group but remains familiar with its inner workings, also confirmed the arrest, pointing out that six men were captured during the operation.
“He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number,” he said.
Chadian police spokesman Paul Manga told reporters in N’Djamena that those arrested were “bandits who operate in the city… undocumented and members of Boko Haram.”
The arrest comes just days after the Nigerian Government confirmed the capture of notorious Boko Haram commander Abu Baraa and his deputy Mallam Mamuda in a separate counter-terrorism operation.
For more Nigeria News Today updates on counter-terrorism and national security, visit the Security section of The Bureau News.