Boko Haram fighters 'surrender' as alleged chief killed- BBC news

The military says Mohammed Bashir was an imposter posing as Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau

More than 260 Islamist militants have surrendered in north-eastern Nigeria, the military has said.

Soldiers had also killed a man who featured in Boko Haram's propaganda videos pretending to be the group's leader Abubakar Shekau, it added.
Last year, the military said that Shekau may have been killed, without providing any proof.
Boko Haram has suffered heavy losses in recent weeks in battles in its stronghold of north-eastern Nigeria.
The military said that 135 Boko Haram members surrendered with their weapons in Biu, Borno state, on Tuesday - and that 133 others surrendered elsewhere in north-eastern Nigeria.
'Eccentric character' The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says that the claims are impossible to verify.
However, if they are true, it could be a major turning point for the army's campaign against Boko Haram militants, our correspondent adds.

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in April sparked a worldwide campaign for their release

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General Chris Olukolade of the Nigerian military said that a man named Mohammed Bashir was among those killed in the latest offensive against Boko Haram last week.
Bashir "had been acting or posing in videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group", he said.
'Foreign-backed' Gen Olukolade did not give further details.
In a statement in August 2013, the military said intelligence reports indicated that Shekau "may have died" in a shoot-out with government forces at a Boko Haram camp in the vast Sambisa Forest, along Nigeria's border with Cameroon, about two months earlier.

Boko Haram's insurgency has caused much destruction in north and central Nigeria

But Nigerian journalist Ahmad Salkida, who has good contacts in Boko Haram, says on on his Twitter account that he has it "on authority that Shekau is well and alive". https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4307893354206176297#editor/target=post;postID=5118841273766398570