Niger's army has claimed to have killed Boko Haram leader Ibrahim Mahamadu, alias "Bakura", without providing evidence, prompting caution from experts and a denial from the jihadist group.

After its founding in neighbouring Nigeria in the early 2000s, Boko Haram achieved worldwide notoriety by kidnapping more than 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, in the country's northeast.

Much remains murky about Bakura's supposed death, which, if true, would deal a blow to the Islamists, whose insurgency has spread to Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

- Death rumours -

In 2009 Nigeria's army captured and killed Boko Haram's founder, the radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf.

The group's later leaders have proved more elusive. Yusuf's successor, Abubakar Shekau, was claimed dead on multiple occasions, only for the jiha

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