Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau wants to be Africa's Osama Bin Laden, and has ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric in an effort to spread his influence globally, according to a more-nuanced profile of him developed since he orchestrated the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls more than a month ago.
U.S. counterterrorism officials and terrorism experts say that Shekau, whose age is unknown and background mysterious, has developed a sophisticated media operation aimed at helping him achieve that goal. But they are divided on his ability to become an influential leader of militant Islam, with some calling him mentally unstable while others argue he is “crazy like a fox.”
Shekau’s best-known crime is the kidnapping of more than 300 Nigerian girls – 276 of whom remain missing --from a government-run secondary school in Chibok on April 14. But under his command, Boko Haram has become the most violent terrorist group in the world, carrying out a laundry list of atrocities in northeastern Nigeria.
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