The leader of jihadist group Boko Haram reappeared in a video posted on social media Sunday, saying he is in good health and rejecting statements by the Nigerian army he has been seriously wounded.
Speaking in Hausa, Arabic and English and in dialects spoken in northeast Nigeria, a man purporting to be Abubakar Shekau said in a 40-minute video addressed to the military, "You broadcast the news and published it in the social media that you injured or killed me, and here I am.”
The video was released on Youtube and dated September 25.
Last month Nigeria's air force said Shekau had been wounded in an operation that killed senior members of Boko Haram.
The man uses the video to issue threats against President Muhammadu Buhari, who recently appealed to the United Nations for help in negotiating the release of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the militants more than two years ago.
"To the tyrants of Nigeria in particular and the west of Africa in general, die in your anger and the news is not like as you claimed and as you distributed, because you broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me and here I am, telling you if God willing, you tyrants I am fine and secured if God willing and nothing has hit me and I will not get killed until my time comes," he said.
The military has reported Shekau's death in the past, but a man claiming to be him appeared later to make a video statement, saying he was unharmed.
Boko Haram is blamed for killing about 15,000 people and for forcing more than two million people from their homes during a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a state ruled by strict Islamic laws.
