Niger’s army said its soldiers killed a leader of the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin, but experts cast doubt over the unverified claim.

Since Boko Haram’s insurgency to establish an Islamic caliphate in neighbouring northeast Nigeria began in 2009, the conflict has left 40,000 people dead and forced more than two million to flee their homes.

The leader, Bakura, was killed during a “surgical operation” on an island in the Diffa region of southeast Niger last week, where the country borders Nigeria and Chad, an army statement on Thursday read.

He led a splinter group loyal to former Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau that refused to join rival faction the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and moved to the islands on the Niger side of the lake with his fighters.

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