Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, a young son of Boko Haram’s founder, has been arrested in Chad, where he was allegedly leading a jihadist cell.
According to both an intelligence source and a former insurgent, Yusuf was arrested alongside five other suspected members of the movement.
Boko Haram was founded in Nigeria a few years before Yusuf’s birth by his father, radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf.
Chadian police confirmed it arrested six Boko Haram members but could not say if one of them was the older Yusuf’s son.
A Nigerian intelligence source in the Lake Chad region told AFP at the weekend that they received a report of the arrest of a six-man jihadist cell in Chad.
“The team was headed by Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder,” said the source.
A former lieutenant of Yusuf’s father, who has denounced Boko Haram also said Yusuf had been arrested.
“He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number”.
Chadian police said they had arrested “bandits who operate in the city… they are undocumented, they are members of Boko Haram,” police spokesman Paul Manga told AFP from N’djamena.
He said the cell was arrested “a few months ago.”
