Fighters from Barnawi camp had the previous day attacked gunmen loyal to Shekau in Zuwa village in the nearby Marte district, killing an unspecified number of people, Kaka said.
“The Barnawi fighters told villagers after each attack that they were fighting the other camp because they had derailed from the true jihad and were killing innocent people, looting their property and burning their homes. They said such acts contravened the teachings of Islam and true jihad,” he said.
Factions Divide Borno Into Two Jurisdictions
Findings by our reporter reveal that while the ISIS-backed Al-Barnawi has an upper hand in northern part of Borno State, which shares borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon along the shores of the Lake Chad, Shekau is still dominant in the central and southern parts of the state, where the large swathes of the Sambisa forest are located.
Sources said Al-Barnawi was giving Shekau a “tough time in northern Borno” by taking over the few places where the group had “some influence.” Mamman Nur, the hitherto third in command to Shekau, who was declared wanted by the United States, is seen as the actual ISIS linkman in Nigeria, but is fronting Al-Barnawi as leader, in order to retain the loyalty of the original supporters of Mohammed Yusuf.
A community leader from northern Borno, who is now living in Maiduguri, but does not want his name mentioned, said: “The Al-Barnawi boys are trailing and killing Shekau’s boys in places like Monguno, Kukawa, Damasak, Abadam, Marte and Kala-Balge, even though all the two factions are being confronted by the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).”
“While only security officials can confirm if Al-Barnawi has started receiving support from ISIS or not, what we know is that they have black mercenaries from neighbouring countries who barely speak our local dialect,” he added.
“But when you go to villages in Gwoza, Damboa and Chibok, which are all not far from the Sambisa forest, you find out that the few skirmishes being recorded recently are being perpetrated by the Shekau camp,” said Alex Magaji, a farmer in the small village of Dabuli in Southern Borno.
Their Fight Good For Us – Civilian JTF
Leaders of the Borno Youths Vigilante, popularly known as Civilian JTF, said the infighting by the Boko Haram was probably the best news coming out of the violent group in recent times. Barrister Jibrin Gunda, the legal adviser of the vigilantes in Borno State, said the emergence of crack in any group signified the end of it, no matter how strong such group was.
“We welcome the development and we pray they would continue fighting and fragmenting. However, what I want to tell you is that none of them is better; we are looking for all of them. “The only ones that we would spare are those who repent, and they were the ones that would be taken as prisoners of war by the Nigerian Army. “If you look at recent events, our people, like the ones from Konduga and Mafa, are gradually leaving the IDP camps. All these positive things are happening because of the gradual return of peace. The Borno State government is working hard to take all the people back to their homes, and we, as vigilantes, welcome this feat,” Gunda said.
How Ideological ‘Differences’ Made A Difference
When Abubakar Shekau launched a surprised comeback in 2010 after he had been reported killed by the Nigerian forces in the 2009 bloodbath in Maiduguri, he remained the indisputable leader of the Boko Haram for the next seven years. Nobody dared to question his “judgement,” which began with isolated killings of policemen by shoot and run ragtag fighters, before it escalated to targeted killings of civilians with AK-47 rifles in their homes.
His group gradually added soldiers and other uniformed men to its killing list, just as it began to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at markets, motor parks, mosques, churches and other populated places, before it started taking hostages, as well as invading and occupying communities.
Shekau also described government, democracy, international relations and diplomacy as un-Islamic and vowed to destroy constituted authorities and replace them with Sharia system, that would spare only those Muslims that believe in his teachings.
In March, 2015, Shekau paid allegiance to Al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader and renamed the Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah LIdda’awati Wal Jihad he headed to Islamic State in West African Province (SWAP).
In the first week of August, this year, the ISIS announced Al-Barnawi, who is said to be in his 20s, as its new representative in West Africa.
Shekau Resisted
But few days after, Shekau kicked against the decision, explaining how he arrived at his “ideology” and how he differed with what the ISIS wanted to achieve.
“I was deceived but all I know is that AlBarnawi and whoever is with him are infidels. I will never stray from the ideology of the Jama’atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da’awati wal-Jihad, which has its basis in the Quran,” he said in a 10 minutes audio he released, after he had disappeared from glare for over a year.
“In the first place, we sat and I was deceived, they said I should write my ideology to be taken to them so that if there is a mistake they will point out and revert. They now deceived me, and… today I found out that there is one who is following the principles of the infidels, which they want me to follow, and the Prophet has stopped from doing that..
“We have heard news going round and attributed to people (ISIS) we had earlier pledged allegiance to. Although we are not against them, based on the message we heard in the radio, we are still on our ideology.
“We know those we differ from and I have written on this long ago. Because I stated it clearly that I am against the principle where someone will dwell in the society with the infidels without making public his opposition or anger against the infidels publicly as it is stated in the Qur’an. Anyone doing that can’t be a Muslim, thick and thin. This is what our ideology proved and that is where I stand. To them, a Muslim can dwell in the society and do his marketing, compromising core foundations.
“I want the world to know that we are still holding our ideology and tied with the Qur’an, we will not derail and will not revolt, but will continue to remain in the cause of Allah. Following the Prophet (SAW) is compulsory for us, and we will follow him to the end,” he said.
Al Barnawi Countered
Few days after Shekau gave his side of the story, Al Barnawi, with the support of Mamman Nur, reacted, saying Shekau was ousted because of various offences, including the killing of “fellow Muslims and living a life of affluence, living members to starve and hoarding of munitions.”
“We are here to send a message across to Shekau who had released his own cassette,” Mamman Nur said. “We would challenge anyone that challenges us, and we must bring out the true meaning of Islam because the religion does not belong to your father or mother.
“We would soon release our own video and you will see how Shekau is justifying killing people and boasting about it. We are not killers like him. If our intention were to kill, we would have killed him. Unknown to him, those he trust his life with are our people, we can kill him if we want, but we will not.
“We want him alive so that he would see that things can go on without him. “We will fight for the cause of Allah and work against personalising Jihad and against unjustifiable killings and shedding of blood. We are out because you came out with your own cassette. We want our people to know proper Islam because Allah in the Qur’an forbids killings without justification. Just like Allah gave us power to kill infidels, there are those he said we shouldn’t kill without reason,” Mamman Nur said.
“In the Qur’an, Allah forbids Muslims from killing one another…and He also taught against killing in secret. If it is a serious punishment, it must be public for people to know and witness it. But once you see killings in secret, there is something fishy, and this is what we noticed with Shekau. What he is doing is not Islam. He said we should follow him and we agreed, but we later realised it is another thing and we said no. We have to stick to the Qur’an and what Allah says, not following someone’s waywardness,” he added.
They also accused him of “inserting his opinion” while giving Fatwa (Islamic verdict), which, according to them, clearly contradicts the teaching of their founder, Mohammed Yusuf.
Who To Dialogue With?
From their recent body languages and utterances, the two factions are evidently amenable to a truce with the Nigerian authorities, observers have said.
For instance, Shekau, as evident in the video he released recently, is in possession of a large chunk of captives, including the over 200 Chibok girls that were abducted on April 14, 2014. Speaking through one of his longtime ally, Abu Zinnira, who appeared in the video with the girls, Shekau said only the release of his members in the custody of Nigerian authorities would guarantee the security of the girls.
On the other hand, Al-Barnawi, who is also reportedly in possession of some of the Chibok girls and other captives, is “the extensive knowledge at his disposal.”
“You see, Shekau had accused the Al-Barnawi group of somehow being amenable to living under constituted authorities. This means that if the federal government would explore a window of getting him and giving him asylum, he could expose the whereabouts of Shekau and how to tame him,” a source in Maiduguri said.
