The son of Boko Haram’s late founder, Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, has been arrested in Chad, security sources and a former insurgent have confirmed. He was reportedly leading a jihadist cell in the region.
Muslim was detained alongside five other suspected members of the Islamist group, which was originally founded in Nigeria by his father, radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf, years before his birth.
Boko Haram has terrorized the Lake Chad area for nearly 15 years, carrying out attacks on villages and military outposts. While Chadian police confirmed the arrest of six Boko Haram suspects, they did not explicitly identify Muslim Yusuf among them.
A Nigerian intelligence source in the Lake Chad region told AFP that the arrested cell was led by Muslim, the youngest son of Boko Haram’s founder. The group is said to belong to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter faction formed after internal ideological splits.
Muslim Yusuf was just an infant when his father was killed during a 2009 Nigerian military crackdown, making him around 18 years old now. Photos obtained by AFP show a young man in a blue tracksuit resembling Yusuf standing with older detainees.
Also known by the alias Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye, Muslim is the younger brother of ISWAP leader Habib Yusuf, also called Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi.
A former Boko Haram lieutenant, now disengaged but familiar with the group’s operations, confirmed to AFP that Muslim and five others were arrested by Chadian security forces.
Chadian police spokesperson Paul Manga described those detained as “bandits who operate in the city… undocumented members of Boko Haram,” noting the arrests took place several months ago.
