{"id":50831,"date":"2014-09-25T05:51:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T05:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=50831"},"modified":"2014-09-25T05:51:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T05:51:04","slug":"boko-haram-fighters-surrender-as-alleged-chief-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=50831","title":{"rendered":"Boko Haram fighters &#8216;surrender&#8217; as alleged chief killed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\">The Nigerian military has said that more than 260 Boko Haram militants have surrendered in north-eastern Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman also said that the military had killed the man posing as the group&#8217;s leader, Abubakar Shekau.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed Bashir is said to have appeared in the group&#8217;s videos but is thought to be an imposter.<\/p>\n<p>Boko Haram has suffered heavy losses in recent weeks as the Nigerian military battled the group close to its hometown of Maiduguri in the north east.<\/p>\n<p>The military said that 135 Boko Haram members surrendered with their weapons in Biu, Borno State, on Tuesday &#8211; and that 133 others surrendered elsewhere in north-eastern Nigeria and were currently being interrogated.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC&#8217;s Will Ross in Lagos says that this has never happened before in the war against Boko Haram.<\/p>\n<p>Although it is impossible to independently verify, the military is seeing it as a turning point, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bring back our girls protest on 5 May 2014\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77804000\/jpg\/_77804401_77804400.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"400\" \/>The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in April sparked a worldwide campaign for their release<\/div>\n<p>It was also the first time that the Nigerian military has publicly mentioned the death of the group&#8217;s leader Abubakar Shekau, who security forces claimed had died in clashes with the army in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>General Chris Olukolade of the Nigerian military said that Mohammed Bashir, who was killed in the latest offensive against Boko Haram, was a lookalike.<\/p>\n<p>Bashir &#8220;had been acting or posing in videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group&#8221;, he added.<\/p>\n<p>The military however did not give any dates or locations for when they believe leader Shekau actually died.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the United Nations Security Council meeting, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan urged the council to find more ways to combat the militant threat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Evidence has shown that Boko Haram is sourced largely from outside our country,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Only by united action and firm resolve can we check this urgent threat to humanity and also build the enduring structures that will resist their re-emergence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Boko Haram&#8221; means &#8220;Western education is forbidden&#8221; in Arabic, and the group frequently attacks schools and colleges, which it sees as a symbol of Western culture.<\/p>\n<p>Boko Haram was behind the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state in April.<\/p>\n<p>The New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 2,000 civilians have been killed in the region this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nigerian military has said that more than 260 Boko Haram militants have surrendered in north-eastern Nigeria. A spokesman also said that the military had killed the man posing as the group&#8217;s leader, Abubakar Shekau. Mohammed Bashir is said to have appeared in the group&#8217;s videos but is thought to be an imposter. Boko Haram [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":50832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-50831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}