The wife of the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, may have been killed in air raids carried out by the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, an official has said.

The NAF spokesperson, Olatokunbo Adesanya, said in a statement on Wednesday that “Human Intelligence indicates that the wife of the leader of the Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) Organization, Mallama Fitdasi, appeared to have been killed in recent successful airstrikes on Durwawa settlement on the outskirts of Urga, near Konduga.”

According to the air commodore, “Mallama Fitdasi was reported to have been representing her husband in a coordinating meeting with other terrorists at the location of the airstrikes.”

“It is recalled that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) had reported the successful aerial attack of a large number of BHTs at DURWAWA on 19 October 2017.

“Battle Damage Assessment had indeed revealed that the aerial attack set off a fire, causing damage to the BHT structures within the settlement and neutralized most of the BHTs with a few of them fleeing the location.”

Mr. Adesanya, however, explained that “efforts are ongoing to confirm the reported killing of Shekau’s wife, alongside other BHTs.”

Mr. Shekau, the fugitive leader of a Boko Haram faction has remained elusive for several years despite being wanted by Nigerian and American authorities.

His group, which wants an Islamic caliphate in Northern Nigeria, has caused the death of about 100,000 people since 2009 when the insurgency began.

Despite efforts of the Nigerian military and its partners in degrading the sect, the insurgents still carry out attacks mostly on civilian population in Borno and Yobe states.