The Islamic State (IS) militant group has announced a new leader for its West African affiliate, Boko Haram, the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC has reported.
The website reported that Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who was previously spokesman for the insurgent group was featured in the latest issue of an IS magazine as the leader of the insurgent group which has its origin in Nigeria.
IS did not make reference to Abubakar Shekau, the former leader of Boko Haram in the magazine publication.
Nigerian military had claimed several times that its troops had killed Shekau who was last heard from in an audio message last August.
In the audio message, the Boko Haram leader had disputed claims that he was dead and replaced – an IS video released in April said the same.
BBC reported that Shekau took over as the group’s leader after its founder, Muhammad Yusuf, died in Nigerian police custody in July 2009.
Under Shekau’s leadership Boko Haram became more radical, carried out more killings and swore allegiance to IS in March 2015.