The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau says he’s still in control of an important territory that the Nigerian military says it has seized back from the extremist group.
In the 10-minute video released Wednesday, Shekau said his militants weren’t defeated in the Sambisa forest of northeastern Nigeria.
Shekau tells the camera “if you have killed us, why are we still alive?”
At one point the head of Boko Haram calls himself “invincible” and vows to continue his fight to establish an Islamic caliphate.
At the very end though, he also makes clear: “I am tired of this calamity; it is better I die and go to rest in paradise.”
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It wasn’t immediately clear when or where the video was made.
Shekau is a Kanuri man who is also known by the alias Darul Akeem wa Zamunda Tawheed, or Darul Tawheed, is believed to be born between 1965 and 1975.
He served as deputy leader to the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf was executed in 2009.
Nigerian authorities believed that Shekau was killed in 2009 during clashes between security forces and Boko Haram until July 2010, when Shekau appeared in a video claiming leadership of the group.
He has subsequently been reported dead with regularity, and is thought to use body doubles.
In March 2015, Shekau pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq Syria, ISIS, leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Shekau is a Salafi. He has been described as possessing a photographic memory.
