Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire Deal With Nigerian Government in New Video
City gate of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria (file photo; illustrative of the region, not the ceasefire talks). Photo: Ifeatu Nnaobi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Boko Haram has rejected reports of a truce with Nigeria's government, calling them misleading propaganda in a new video statement, even as hostage-related negotiations reportedly continue.
Boko Haram has publicly denied entering into a ceasefire with Nigeria's federal government, releasing a new video in which a figure identified as a group "judge" dismisses recent reports of a truce as misleading propaganda. The video also addresses a reported ransom arrangement, which the group similarly rejects as inaccurate.
The denial contradicts earlier reporting that suggested backchannel negotiations between Abuja and elements of the insurgency had produced at least a partial truce, part of a broader, still-unconfirmed effort to reduce hostilities in Nigeria's northeast after more than a decade and a half of conflict. Nigerian authorities have not issued a detailed public response to the video at the time of writing.
Boko Haram and its splinter factions have a long history of publicly repudiating ceasefire claims even when quieter, unofficial de-escalation has taken place on the ground, making such denials difficult to interpret in isolation. The group's statement warns that attacks will continue, a message aimed as much at reassuring its own fighters and affiliates as at the Nigerian public.
The episode underscores how fragmented and opaque conflict-resolution efforts in the Lake Chad Basin remain, with statements from different factions, negotiators and government sources often difficult to reconcile. Whatever is actually happening behind the scenes, Wednesday's video makes clear that any ceasefire, if one exists in some form, is neither publicly acknowledged nor secure.