Boko Haram urges followers to fight Nigeria, AU troops

LAGOS, Nigeria

Boko Haram has released a new video in which the group calls on militants to prepare to fight Nigerian and African Union troops now deployed in Nigeria’s northeastern region and in parts of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

“Dear brothers, exercise patience as we face the Nigerian army and African Union,” an unidentified speaker, wearing a turban, says in the roughly nine-minute-long video.

“Your brothers fought against the tawaghit by attacking their barracks,” the speaker says, using an Arabic word for “infidel” or “idolater”.

He adds: “They were very many, but we killed many of them.”

It was the first time for the speaker – siting on a cache of weapons purportedly seized from the army and backed up by a hooded fighter holding the black flag associated with the Daesh militant group – to appear in a Boko Haram propaganda video.

The latest video appears to have been produced at a location in northern Nigeria's Borno or Yobe states.

Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s alleged kingpin, does not appear in the video, raising questions about his current whereabouts. 

"Don't be lazy. Fight – give your blood to Allah,” the speaker urges followers in the video.

The video concludes by showing three militants slaughtering a man wearing a Nigerian police uniform.