Chad Arrests Son of Boko Haram Founder Linked to ISWAP Cell

Edited By : Aminata Diallo

A son of Boko Haram’s founder has been arrested in Chad along with five alleged accomplices, suspected of leading a jihadist cell, according to a former member of the Nigerian group and a source within Nigerian intelligence services.

Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, the youngest son of the late Nigerian radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who founded Boko Haram several years before his birth, is also the younger brother of Habib Yusuf, known by his war name Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a breakaway faction of Boko Haram.

A spokesperson for the Chadian police confirmed the arrest of six members of a jihadist cell, noting that the operation had been ongoing for “several months,” but did not confirm that one of the detainees was the son of Boko Haram’s late founder.

A source within Nigerian intelligence in the Lake Chad region told AFP that the six-member cell was linked to ISWAP, Boko Haram’s rival faction. “The cell was led by Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder,” the source said, adding that Muslim Mohammed Yusuf—who reportedly uses the alias Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye and is now around 18 years old—was still an infant when his father was killed in a 2009 military operation that claimed approximately 800 lives.