Waving a captured black and white militant flag, soldiers from Niger and Chad on Wednesday celebrated their liberation of a Nigerian town from Boko Haram extremists.

It is another victory in a regional campaign to wrest back swaths of northeast Nigeria from the Islamist militants.

Damasak, just a few miles over the border from Niger, was liberated over the weekend, Col. Michel Ledru, a spokesman for Niger’s army, said Wednesday.

In heavy fighting, 228 militants were killed and one soldier from Niger died, Ledru said. Vehicles and motor cycles riddled with bullets littered the streets.

An Associated Press photographer in the northeastern town said it was largely deserted of civilians on Wednesday.

Four people, including an old man, came onto the street to wave at a convoy among 2,000 troops from Niger and Chad in the town.

There were still signs of the town’s occupation by the militants. Their writings were scrawled on every wall and the extremists’ black and white flag still flew above some buildings.

As two Chadian helicopters landed with supplies, soldiers on the ground started chanting and displaying their catch: A Boko Haram flag torn down from a nearby building.

On the outskirts of town, hundreds of troops have set up camp. Some soldiers hid from the 45-degree (113-degree Fahrenheit) heat in the shade to their tanks. Some used their helmets to grind grain for a meal. A few did laundry while others cooked food.

It was all work for a group of Chadian troops who transferred weapons captured from Boko Haram to a pickup truck that drove it to the helicopters for transport back to Niger: AK47 assault rifles and 50-caliber guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells.

“Boko Haram is far now, very far,” said one soldier.

The insurgents had seized Damasak with little resistance on Nov. 24, when residents reported that the militants drove in flinging firebombs and improvised explosive devices.

Thousands of residents who fled across the border into Niger said dozens of people were killed and an unknown number of girls kidnapped.

Boko Haram has been fighting a six-year insurgency to create an Islamic state and had taken control of large parts of Nigeria’s northeast in the past year. It became notorious internationally after kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls last April.

But in recent months, Nigeria has stepped up its campaign against the militants, and, with the help of a regional force that includes Niger and Chad, has retaken dozens of towns.

The Nigerian military, battling insurgency in the northeast, has had no news of more than 200 girls abducted 11 months ago by Boko Haram Islamists, the army chief said on Tuesday.

Responding to a question from reporters on the fate of the missing 219 schoolgirls, Lieutenant General Kenneth Minimah said “no news for now”.

“In all the liberated areas we have also made enquiries,” but when the Boko Haram fighters flee they take their dependants with them, he told reporters after a security council meeting.

“Those we have come in contact with have not made any comment suggesting that the Chibok girls were there and were taken away,” he added.

Nevertheless Minimah said he remained optimistic that details of the girls’ whereabouts would become known as the size of the territory under Boko Haram control continues to shrink.

International condemnation
Boko Haram insurgents abducted a total of 276 school girls from Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state, in April 2014.

Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape while the 219 are still being held by Boko Haram.

Their abduction triggered international condemnation and outcry.

Critics have accused the government of not doing enough to ensure the rescue of the girls. A top military officer said last year that they knew where they were being held.

Minimah confirmed that Yobe and Adamawa states “have been liberated completely” from the control of Boko Haram.

In Borno state, only three local governments – Abadam, Gwoza and Kala-Balge – are still under the countrol of Boko Haram, the army chief said.

Final onslaught
Nigeria has begun the “final onslaught” against Boko Haram, the country’s national security spokesperson said on Tuesday in London.

On a visit to London, Mike Omeri told AFP that “significant strategic military successes and gains” had been made against the Islamists in recent weeks.

Omeri had announced in Abuja last week that 36 towns had been recaptured from Boko Haram.
Troops on Monday recaptured Bama, Borno’s second main city, the military claimed.

The insurgency has left more than 13 000 people dead since 2009 and forced some 1.5 million others to flee their homes.

Somali Islamist militants killed at least four people during a raid on a Kenyan town near the border with Somalia, police said on Wednesday.

Hooded gunmen attacked a shop in the northeastern town of Wajir, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Somali border, firing guns and setting off explosions, witnesses said late on Tuesday.

“They locked (people) inside the shop, set it on fire and left. Three died inside while one (died) while being ferried to hospital,” said Mohamed Siyat, a county government official.

The Islamist group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the raid. The militants last week also killed several people when they attacked a convoy carrying a regional Kenyan governor, Ali Roba, near the Mandera area bordering Somalia.

The northeastern region stretching from Wajir to the border town of Mandera has often been targeted by al Shabaab, which has vowed to punish Kenya for sending troops into Somalia where they are fighting alongside other African peacekeepers.

Many residents and regional politicians have vented frustration with the government for failing to improve security in a crime-ridden region awash with bandits and gunmen.

Analysts say the long and porous border with Somalia has made the northeastern region a soft target for al Shabaab, who often retreat into Somalia after raids.

When Boko Haram leader Abu Bakr Shekau swore allegiance to Islamic State (Isis) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, pro-IS jihadis lauded the pledge as another span of the globe to add to their group’s rapidly expanding network. Celebratory remarks also included wishful thinking that al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s (AQ) branch in Somalia, might eventually pledge to IS as well.

No official statement has been released by al-Shabaab, Core AQ, or IS regarding such dissent. However, mounting rumors and unconfirmed reports of Shabaab fighters suggest that those floodgates may have already opened.

Social media posts from some al-Shabaab fighters have indeed expressed desire to leave the group for IS. “Mujahid Miski,” the online alias of an alleged American al-Shabaab fighter named Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, has openly stated his support for the group while claiming the influence of recruits to Somalia is fading.

“I’ve been in Somalia for 6 years now and people from everywhere used to make hijrah [migration] here. Not anymore because Sham [Syria] has more fadl [virtue] and reward over Africa. If the people of Sham are good, the rest of the Ummah [nation] will be good and if they’re fasaad [corrupt], then the rest of the Ummah [nation] will be fasaad [corrupt].”

Hassan has also stated that his fellow al-Shabaab fighters are aware of his support for IS, allowing him to state that if he had the chance, he would “go to Sham [Syria] without a little hesitation.” He has also stated:

“The Muslims of this land need perfection too. We need the Islamic State to expand insha Allah [God willing].”

On 6 March, Mogadishu News, the Twitter account of a freelance reporter based in Mogadishu, provided a series of tweets forwarding claims that pro-IS and pro-AQ al-Shabaab forces had begun “battling” in the Somali town of Jilib. The account also stated that IS “now has more supporters” in Shabaab and that top leaders of the group would be meeting to discuss their status under AQ.

Such reports have been contested by other sources. Live from Mogadishu, the account of another freelance journalist in the capital city, posted that these claims were “completely unfounded.” Still, posts and discussions about IS in Somalia have more prominent in recent days.

Jihadist accounts on Twitter also began commenting on rumors of a split within the Shabaab. A March 12, 2015 tweet by user Abu Musab al Amreeki showed what appeared to be jihadi fighters holding a banner. The tweet was accompanied by a message mentioning Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Robow:

Jeel al-Khilafa [Generation of the Caliphate]
We are coming…. We are coming,
The caliphate will be back on the Prophetic way despite noses of the disbelievers

Twitter users in unconnected conversations also commented on the rumours. On 13 March, user Colonel ShaamiBro tweeted: “Nobody is talking about the huge spilt that just happened in AlShabaab???”

User Abu Malik, replied, “woah what? There was a split?” To this question, Colonel ShaamiBro responded, “yes it was between pro AQ n IS supporters in AlShabaab.”

Colonel ShaamiBro also stated at one point, “Brother just confirm its not true,” though it was not clear if he was forwarding a claim or asking for such a statement.

Likelihood of Shabaab Defection
Despite al-Shabaab being a part of AQ, it is the only jihadist group that is supported equally by both AQ and IS followers. Al-Shabaab releases online are regularly shared and celebrated on both sides of the jihadi movement, and its releases are often pushed out through both pro-IS and pro-AQ forms—a luxury no other jihadist group is given.

It is also notable that even while al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a group once admired by IS fighters, went forward to condemn IS’s “Caliphate,” al-Shabaab has remained relatively neutral on the issue.
At the end of the day, however, al-Shabaab remains firmly and officially under AQ, and reinstated its pledge to AQ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri last September. Furthermore, not every leader within Shabaab views IS positively.

In October, allegations surfaced that former al-Shabaab leader Mukhtar Abu al-Zubeir had rejected a monetary offer from pro-IS Somalis for the group’s allegiance. The claims, made by a prominent jihadist on Twitter, stated al-Shabaab officials held a meeting on the matter:

The Movement came out with a Shariah position, that the group of the State [IS] is a group of extremism and deviation, and that their announcement of a Caliphate is heresy that has no relation to Shariah. Every member who entered with the bearers of dollars who represented the pledges of allegiance (may Allah disappoint them), were expelled from the areas of control of the Movement.

While it doesn’t seem that al-Shabaab will abandon its pledge of allegiance to AQ, it would not be surprising at all to see fighters defect from the group and announce support for IS. Such an event would be similar to the defection of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders in Afghanistan-Pakistan region, which ultimately formed IS’s “Khorasan Province.”

Any split within the group would certainly cause clashes between al-Shabaab and IS supporters, with both sides trying to win the respect and admiration of other jihadists. Yet, these clashes might be even fiercer given al-Shabaab’s history of unforgiving treatment toward those that break away from it. In December 2013, the group reportedly killed Omar Hammami (AKA Abu Mansour al-Amriki), an American Shabaab fighter who had openly criticized Zubeir (then the group’s leader) and defected.

Despite the close timing of these rumours to Shekau’s pledge, we cannot directly compare Boko Haram’s relationship with IS to any such relationship between Baghdadi’s force and Al-Shabaab. Boko Haram, before pledging to IS, was its own jihadi group.

The Shabaab, on the other hand, remains under AQ leadership, giving any such defection its own world of meaning and implications.