Abubakar Shekau, the mercurial leader of Nigeria’s Islamist group, Boko Haram, on Sunday released a video in which he declares the areas under his sect’s control a Caliphate and shows scenes of carnage carried out by his fighters against unarmed civilians. The video, which is the most gruesome since Boko Haram started the tradition of periodic releases of videotaped messages, also shows Nigerian soldiers fleeing from approaching insurgents.
Watch video below…
Excerpts of the transcribed speech by Mr. Shekau are provided below:
“I chose to deliver this message in order to refute the lies being spread by the government, about the operations we had in recent times.
“We warn the vigilantes called civilian JTF to back off; if not, there will be no place for them to hide. We have evidence of how you killed some of our brethren whom you would ask if they were Boko Haram members before you killed them. We know how you humiliated them by asking them if they had ever carried guns or killed someone…We know everything about the evil you committed against our brethren.
“We still have the magnanimity of asking you to repent because you will never succeed in this way by the grace of Allah. And I swear by Allah that we will never stop killing you, because Allah commanded us to kill people like you. If we pity you and spare you, one day you will become infidels.
So, to us, having pity on you is an act of disbelief. You can continue to run or hide your identities in women’s attire, but we will get to you and remove the women’s clothing off of you. Then, while you are shouting for mercy, we will strike, smash your heads and kill you all. Even if you don’t do anything to us we will kill you…We would do it even to avenge our brethren. You killed our brethren in large numbers.
“We don’t joke with religion (quoting from the Koran). There is no hypocrisy in this religion. It is only the truth.
“We are not proud of our strength, nor with our weapons nor with anything we have but we are only proud of victory from Allah the exalted. Victory is only from God. Who is America in the sight of Allah? Who is America in the sight of Allah? Who is Israel in the sight of Allah? Who is France in the sight of Allah?”