Abubakar Shekau
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leader of a Nigerian militant group (1973-2021)
OverviewAI-generated
Abubakar Shekau was born on 24 March 1973. He was a Nigerian citizen, a Muslim, and a member of the Kanuri people, speaking Hausa along with Arabic, Kanuri, and Fula. His occupation is recorded as military personnel, and his floruit is dated to 2014. He held allegiance to Boko Haram and the Islamic State, and participated in the Boko Haram insurgency and the 2009 Boko Haram uprising.
His recorded period of work ran from 2002 to 2021. He died by suicide on 20 May 2021 in the Sambisa Forest.
Synthesized by Vinony from 18 facts across 1 sources: Wikidata. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Abubakar Mohammed Shekau , ( 1973-03-23 ) 23 March 1973, Shekau, Tarmuwa , Yobe State , Nigeria
- Died
- 19 May 2021 (2021-05-19) (aged 48), Sambisa Forest , Borno State , Nigeria
- Cause of death
- Suicide bombing
- Allegiance
- Boko Haram (2002–2021), Islamic State (fully 2015–2016; loosely from 2016)
- Service years
- 2002–2021
- Rank
- Leader (2009–2021)
- Conflicts
- Boko Haram insurgency 2009 Boko Haram uprising January 2015 raid on Kolofata 2015 West African offensive 2015 Niger raid Chad Basin campaign (2018–2020) Boko Haram–ISWAP conflict Battle of Sambisa Forest (2021) †
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Nigeria
- Place of death
- Sambisa Forest
- Occupation
- military personnel
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- Hausa
- Religion
- Islam
Show 9 more facts
- floruit
- 2014-10-00
- allegiance
- Islamic State
- date of birth
- 1973-03-24
- name in native language
- أبو مُحمَّد أبو بكر بن مُحمَّد الشكوي
- date of death
- 2021-05-20
- manner of death
- Suicide
- ethnic group
- Kanuri people
- start of work period
- 2002-00-00
- end of work period
- 2021-00-00
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Pronunciation of Abubakar Mohammed Shekau Abubakar Mohammed Shekau (23 March 1973 – 19 May 2021) was a Nigerian militant who was the leader of Boko Haram, an extremist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, from 2009 until his suicide in 2021 during the Battle of Sambisa Forest. He previously served as deputy leader to the group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf's execution by Nigerian police in 2009.
Nigerian authorities believed that Shekau was killed in 2009 during clashes between security forces and Boko Haram until July 2010, when Shekau appeared in a video claiming leadership of the group. He had subsequently been regularly reported dead and was thought to use doubles.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Abubakar Shekau” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.