August 18, (THEWILL) — A son of Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, identified as Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye, has been arrested in Chad.
AFP reported that Abdoulaye, who was allegedly leading a jihadist cell, was arrested alongside five suspected members of the movement by Chadian security forces.
Although authorities in Chad have yet to officially confirm his detention, the police said six Boko Haram members were recently apprehended.
A former lieutenant of Mohammed Yusuf, who has since renounced Boko Haram but retains insight into the group’s operations, confirmed that the young Yusuf was arrested with the suspects.
A Nigerian intelligence source in the Lake Chad region also verified the arrest of the six-man cell.
“The team was headed by Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder,” the source said, adding that the group belonged to the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, a Boko Haram splinter faction that broke away over ideological differences.
Mohammed Yusuf, Boko Haram’s founder, was killed in 2009 during a military crackdown in Maiduguri that left about 800 people dead.
His son, who was an infant at the time, is the younger brother of ISWAP leader Habib Yusuf, also known as Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi.
Boko Haram, established in Nigeria by Yusuf in the early 2000s, has terrorised communities in the Lake Chad region for over 15 years and recently escalated attacks on villages and military bases.
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