Boko Haram reportedly has a new leader who has assured an ISIS interviewer the group would not be targeting Muslims.
ISIS’ magazine al-Naba announced that Sheikh Abu Musab al-Barnawi is the new leader of Boko Haram, an ISIS affiliate in Nigeria, in an interview with him in its recent issue.
Barnawi didn’t promise to quit enslaving girls, nor to quit ambushing relief columns bringing food to 244,000 starving children, nor to quit slaughtering people who will not convert to Islam or fight for Boko Haram, nor to quit using children as bombs.
But in an interview with Naba, he did deny responsibility for attacks on Muslims, saying they were perpetrated by people with other agendas.
“We do not target prayer places or markets for people who belong to Islam,” he told Naba.
The group was blamed — although it did not take credit — for twin market bombings in the cities of Kano and Yola last November, using children as young as 11 as suicide bombers.
