A young son of Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, has been arrested in Chad, where he was allegedly leading a jihadist cell, according to an intelligence source and a former insurgent.
Muslim Mohammed Yusuf was detained alongside five other suspected members of the movement, which was founded in neighboring Nigeria by his father, radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf.
The Islamist group has terrorized the Lake Chad region for about 15 years, with increasingly bold attacks on villages and military bases in recent months. While Chadian police confirmed arresting six Boko Haram members, they could not confirm if one was Yusuf’s son.
A Nigerian intelligence source in the Lake Chad region told AFP they received reports of the arrest of a six-man jihadist cell. “The team was headed by Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder,” the source said.
The cell reportedly belonged to the Islamic State West Africa Province, a rival faction that split from Boko Haram over ideological differences.
The intelligence source noted that Yusuf was an infant when his father was killed in 2009 during a military crackdown on Boko Haram that left around 800 dead. He is believed to be 18 years old. Photos seen by AFP show a young, slender man in a blue tracksuit—bearing a strong resemblance to Yusuf—standing alongside older detainees.
Yusuf, who uses the alias Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye, is the younger brother of ISWAP leader Habib Yusuf, also known as Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi. A former associate of Yusuf’s father, who has since denounced Boko Haram but retains knowledge of the group’s operations, also confirmed the arrest. “He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number,” the former insurgent told AFP.
Chadian police spokesperson Paul Manga stated that the suspects were “bandits who operate in the city… they are undocumented, they are members of Boko Haram.” He clarified that the arrests occurred “a few months ago.”
Nigeria’s counter-terrorism center and national intelligence service did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
