Boko Haram leader appears in new video, says group is in good health

In his first video message in months, Shekau dismissed the government's insistence that the group is defeated, claiming that security agencies can do nothing to harm the group's operations.

The leader of Boko Haram's biggest faction spoke in Hausa language through the 31-minute duration of the video where he claimed attacks in Maiduguri, Gamboru and Damboa.

He said, "We are in good health and nothing has happened to us Nigerian troops, police and those creating mischief against us can't do anything against us, and you will gain nothing.

"We carried out the attacks in Maiduguri, in Gamboru, in Damboa. We carried out all these attacks."

The video displayed footage from a Christmas Day attack on a military checkpoint in Molai village on the outskirts of Maiduguri with terrorists shown shooting at soldiers from the back of battered pickup trucks.

In his New Year's Day address on Monday, January 1, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari insisted that "we have since beaten Boko Haram", even though he also admitted that "isolated attacks still occur" because it's impossible to "prevent determined criminals from committing terrible acts of terror" just as it happens in "even the best-policed countries" across the world.

ALSO READ: Buhari needs to be more honest about Boko Haram 'defeat'

Boko Haram menace

Since the insurgency of the terrorist group escalated after a 2009 crackdown by the military, Boko Haram, chiefly under the leadership of Shekau, has been responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.5 million scattered across Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country and its neighbours.

After a massive military operation resulted in the displacement of the group from its primary base in the infamous Sambisa Forest, it has resorted to suicide bomb attacks on soft targets and carried out daring attacks on military bases, with hundreds of captives still unaccounted for.