Bakura, leader of Boko Haram, dies in a military operation in Niger with the support of Moroccan intelligence

Ibrahim Mahamadu, known as Bakura, the leader of Boko Haram, was killed in Niger during a special operation backed by Moroccan intelligence services. This jihadist group, which emerged in 2009 in northern Nigeria, has caused around 40,000 deaths and displaced more than two million people.

Various international media outlets have indicated that this action was made possible by an exchange of information with Morocco, although the institutions have not yet issued any official confirmation. It should be noted, however, that since 2016, the Moroccan government, on the instructions of King Mohammed VI, had already shown its solidarity with the armed forces by sending military equipment.

The Nigerien army announced on the night of Thursday 21 August that it had killed Bakura a week earlier in the Lake Chad basin, on the border between Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. In its operational bulletin, it specified that ‘on 15 August, the Nigerian armed forces, in a high-precision operation, eliminated the feared Bakura, whose real name is Ibrahim Mahamadu, leader of the Boko Haram sect, on the island of Chilawa, in the Diffa region’.

A military source added that the operation was carried out ‘very early’ and that ‘an Air Force fighter jet carried out three targeted and consecutive strikes on locations where Bakura used to be in Chilawa.’

After expanding from northern Nigeria, the group established itself in the Lake Chad basin, increasing its incursions into Niger, Chad and Cameroon. In Niger, the first attacks emerged in 2015 in the lakeside town of Bosso.

According to the Nigerian Army, Ibrahim Mahamadu, aged approximately 40, had joined Boko Haram more than thirteen years ago. He took over the leadership of the group in May 2021, following the death of his predecessor, Abubakar Shekau.

Military sources linked him to the kidnapping of more than 300 students in Kuriga, Nigeria, in March 2024, as well as numerous suicide bombings in markets, mosques and civilian gatherings, along with attacks on the armies of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Bakura took over from Abubakar Shekau in 2021, who had been the group's leader and had been declared dead on multiple occasions before disappearing completely. Under his command, Boko Haram continued its approach of severe violence, combining attacks, massacres and kidnappings, including that of the Dapchi schoolgirls, who were held captive for a time before being released.