Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Boko Haram sect, has reportedly been killed in a battle with the military in Konduga, a border town between Nigeria and Cameroon.

https://news.vice.com/article/boko-haram-leader-abubakar-shekau-reported-killed-again-this-time-by-cameroons-army
By Senator Iroegbu with Agency Report

Nigerian security agencies are reviewing information that Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, may have been killed in a battle with the military, a person familiar with the investigation was quoted as saying by Bloomberg at the weekend.

Shekau may have been killed in the fighting near Konduga in Borno State, according to a security official who asked not to be identified because an official statement had not been made by the government.

The Nigerian armed forces last week said in a Twitter posting that over 60 Boko Haram militants had been killed and a senior Boko Haram leader had been captured in the battle at Konduga, a strategic town 40 kilometres away from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The leader, who wasn't identified by the armed forces, was being treated at a military hospital, the statement added.

The military last year said Shekau might have been killed in a June 30 battle. But he later appeared in a video sent to reporters as proof that he was still alive.
However, there appeared to be confusion among intelligence and military sources as to whether the person killed or captured in Konduga last week was Shekau or an imposter, as some sources were very emphatic that a body double, claiming to be the sect's leader, had been appearing in Boko Haram propaganda videos for months.

When contacted on the issue, security sources confirmed that they were indeed trying to verify if Shekau or his impostor was either killed or captured in Konduga.
According to an intelligence source who spoke to THISDAY, the Boko Haram commander, who was reported to have been captured during the Konduga battle last Wednesday is suspected to be the person impersonating or acting as a body double for the terrorist leader.

THISDAY findings further revealed that the military and other intelligence agencies were still reviewing the information but would not make any official statement until they were 100 per cent certain that the commander, who shares similar features with Shekau was actually the Boko Haram leader or his double.
"We believe it may be the man acting as Shekau but we are not emphatic yet. The armoured personnel carrier that was captured during the Konduga battle was simply too similar to the one he uses in his video propaganda and the features are strikingly similar as well.

"The intelligence agencies are still studying his pictures and recordings and we are not in a hurry to make this official until we are very certain," the source said.
Speaking to THISDAY, another top military officer explained that the security and intelligence agencies were "being very cautious this time around because of the previous mistake".

"You know the issue of whether Abubabakar Shekau is dead or alive is still very much contentious, even though we believe that he was killed last year and what you are seeing right now are various impostors acting in his name. There were similar cases during the Second World War when Adolf Hitler had many doubles. The same applied to Saddam Hussein of Iraq when he was alive," the source explained.
Another source at Defence Headquarters (DHQ) said: "Still in the process of confirming that the person we have is the same as that character who has been posing as Shekau. He is definitely a very prominent terrorist commander. I don't want to say anything official on this yet please."

He however volunteered that the person who was captured last week held considerable sway in the sect's foot soldiers, as many of them were forced to flee to safe havens across the border in Cameroun in recent days.

This was confirmed by another military source who revealed that there had been fierce fighting between Boko Haram terrorists and Camerounian forces over the control of the key boundary town of Kirawa.

According to the source, the terrorists who escaped from the Konduga onslaught were chased by the military across the Camerounian border only to encounter another battle in the Central African country.

The source explained that Kirawa is the border town that transverses Nigeria and Cameroun, and was the same town into which close to a battalion of Nigerian soldiers escaped to last month in what DHQ described as a "tactical manoeuvre".
"Since Thursday night, there has been fierce fighting between Boko Haram and the Camerounian military in Kirawa," he said.

Kirawa is considered unique because it is a border town that cuts across the two countries and has boundaries that are blurred, making it very easy for its inhabitants to cross from one country to the other unimpeded.

"This was what happened to our troops who in pursuit of the terrorists suddenly found themselves on the Camerounian side," the source explained.
Meanwhile, THISDAY has learnt that the recent onslaught by the Nigerian Armed Forces is yielding results, as some members of Boko Haram were said to have surrendered and handed their weapons to the military following the defeat of the sect in Konduga and other parts of the North-east.

• THIS DAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2014
  Nigerian security agencies are reviewing information that Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, may have been killed in a battle with the military, ... read more »

Photo: Cameroon Army/Facebook

A photo of Shekau from the Cameroonian army's Facebook page. The image is no longer available on the page.

Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Boko Haram sect,  has reportedly been killed in a battle with the military in Konduga, a border town between Nigeria and Cameroon.

by Isi Esene

The Cameroonian military has released photos of a man believed to be the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.

According to a news website, Cameroon Concord, the man who parades himself as Abubakar Shekau was killed during a cross border raid inside Nigeria.

Here’s what they had to say about it.

In a rare public show by the Cameroonian Army, photos of the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau were made public alongside a statement claiming he was killed during a cross border raid deep inside Nigeria by the Cameroon military.

A Cameroonian military source who spoke to Cameroon Concord late last night, revealed that Abubakar Shekau was killed following an aerial bombardment of his hideout inside Nigeria.

The Cameroon army has ever since yesterday been in serious combat against thousands of Boko Haram fighters trying to enter Cameroon via Fotokol from Gambaral Ngala in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian military also claims to have killed the same man during a fight in Konduga, Borno State.

According to a military source, “It is getting more certain that the terrorist’s commander, who has been mimicking Shekau in previous videos, is the one killed at Konduga, on September 17th, as massive relocation of terrorists to seek safe haven in independent locations in Cameroon has been noticed.”

This will not be the first time that Shekau has “been killed”. Officials first believed he had been killed in clashes between the military and Boko Haram militants in 2009. The massive security crackdown followed the July 2009 Boko Haram attacks on police stations in Borno state. Shortly after the attacks, the military succeeded in storming the group’s mosque and school complex in Maiduguri, and capturing Mohammed Yusuf, the group’s then charismatic leader.

However, in a videotaped interview in 2010, which proved that he was still alive, Shekau said he had been shot in the thigh during the fighting with security troops but was rescued by “fellow believers and protected by Allah”.

Two years ago, security officials again thought they had killed him. But he re-emerged shortly after in a video mocking the attempts on his life and threatening the Nigerian state.

NASA’s Newest Mars Mission Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Red Planet

NASA’s Newest Mars Mission Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Red Planet

Members of the mission team at the Lockheed Martin Mission Support Area in Littleton, Colorado, celebrate after successfully inserting NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft into orbit around Mars at 10:24 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21.

Image Credit: 

Lockheed Martin

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered Mars’ orbit at 10:24 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere as never done before. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.

“As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “It also will better inform a future mission to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.”

After a 10-month journey, confirmation of successful orbit insertion was received from MAVEN data observed at the Lockheed Martin operations center in Littleton, Colorado, as well as from tracking data monitored at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) navigation facility in Pasadena, California. The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna station in Canberra, Australia.

“NASA has a long history of scientific discovery at Mars and the safe arrival of MAVEN opens another chapter,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “Maven will complement NASA’s other Martian robotic explorers—and those of our partners around the globe—to answer some fundamental questions about Mars and life beyond Earth.”

Following orbit insertion, MAVEN will begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes maneuvering into its final science orbit and testing the instruments and science-mapping commands. MAVEN then will begin its one Earth-year primary mission, taking measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars’ upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.

"It's taken 11 years from the original concept for MAVEN to now having a spacecraft in orbit at Mars,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU/LASP). “I'm delighted to be here safely and successfully, and looking forward to starting our science mission."

The primary mission includes five “deep-dip” campaigns, in which MAVEN’s periapsis, or lowest orbit altitude, will be lowered from 93 miles (150 kilometers) to about 77 miles (125 kilometers). These measurements will provide information down to where the upper and lower atmospheres meet, giving scientists a full profile of the upper tier.

“This was a very big day for MAVEN,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.  “We’re very excited to join the constellation of spacecraft in orbit at Mars and on the surface of the Red Planet.  The commissioning phase will keep the operations team busy for the next six weeks, and then we’ll begin, at last, the science phase of the mission.  Congratulations to the team for a job well done today.”

MAVEN launched Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying three instrument packages. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley with support from CU/LASP and Goddard contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will identify characteristics present throughout the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of atomic particles.

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at CU/LASP. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission. The University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments for the mission. Goddard manages the MAVEN project. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. JPL provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, as well as Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

For more about the mission, refer to:

http://www.nasa.gov/maven