Boko Haram claims first major attack in Borno, Shekau vows 'no retreat'

Insurgent group Boko Haram have released a video purporting to show their first major attack in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria’s Borno State – where the group was born and is based.

The factional leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau also vowed that they would continue to fight till Nigerians accept to live under the true law of God.

The video which was released on Saturday shows the raid carried out on Thursday evening where about eleven people were reportedly killed. Nigeria’s security forces however said on Friday that the attack was successfully repelled.

The 23-minute video released on Youtube came in two parts, the first part shows a masked soldier displaying uniforms, shoes, ID cards, arms and ammunition. The group claims their fighters seized the items from the Nigerian military during the attack.

In the second part, factional leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Skehau, appears with a message that reiterated that the group was determined to fight on and that there was no room for any dialogue.

“God has granted us victory, we have killed those we can and have left with those bounties of war we are displaying now. God has enriched us with much of the arms and ammunition in display and we shall deploy such weapons we seized as bounty against you.

“We thank God this is the summary of information. We’ve attacked Maiduguri, and we’ve emerged victorious. The rumour that you’ve killed us is a lie. If you’ve killed us we wouldn’t be here. You can see these are your materials.”

Maiduguri is the centre of the eight-year-old fight against Boko Haram, which has been trying to set up an Islamic caliphate in the northeast.

Boko Haram, despite starting in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State continues to threaten the entire Lake Chad region. Cameroon’s Far North, parts of Chad, Niger have all been affected leading to the formation of a multinational force to fight the group.

The Joint Multinational Force in charge of fighting Boko Haram, has 10,000 soldiers from Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger.