NIGERIA’s relentless war against insurgency recorded a landmark breakthrough at the weekend with the dramatic arrest of two notorious and high-profile leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru terror group.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, announced on Saturday in Abuja that the military had captured Abu Baraa and Mahmuda, two of Ansaru’s most feared and most wanted commanders.
The arrests, products of sustained, painstaking, and coordinated operations launched in May 2025 are being hailed by security analysts as one of the most decisive blows against terrorist networks in West Africa in recent years.
Abu Baraa and Mahmuda were not mere fighters. They were diabolical masterminds, allegedly behind the audacious July 2022 Kuje prison break, which saw hundreds of inmates including hardened Boko Haram and ISWAP militants escape from the custodial centre in Abuja.
That jailbreak shook Nigeria to its core, exposing glaring lapses in counter-terrorism preparedness. Security insiders told News Point Nigeria that the duo also orchestrated high-profile abductions across the North West and North Central, preying on security personnel, expatriates, and vulnerable rural communities.
NSA Ribadu disclosed that their capture was the result of meticulous intelligence-gathering and flawlessly coordinated ground assaults spanning several states.
“Our forces have worked tirelessly, day and night, since May to dismantle Ansaru’s leadership structure. These arrests send an unmistakable message, there is no sanctuary for those who wage war against Nigerians,” Ribadu declared.
Ansaru, formally Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan (“Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa”) was born in 2012 as a breakaway faction from Boko Haram.
Unlike Boko Haram, which pursued a ruthlessly indiscriminate campaign of violence, Ansaru claimed to wage a more “humane” insurgency by focusing its wrath on Westerners and government forces.
Yet, its actions told a grimmer story. Within months of its creation, the group kidnapped and executed foreign engineers in Sokoto, Katsina, and Bauchi. Then, it slipped into years of eerie silence, resurfacing only sporadically.
The dark origins of Ansaru trace back to two infamous figures. The first, Khalid al-Barnawi, is said to have met Osama bin Laden or his deputy in Sudan in the 1990s before fighting with the brutal Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in the Sahel. Under the guidance of Afghan insurgent veteran Hassan Allane, the GIA expanded its lucrative smuggling rackets into Niger and Nigeria. Barnawi later merged into the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The second figure emerged in 2003, when Nigerian security forces stormed a radical enclave in Kanama, Yobe State, led by fiery cleric Muhammed Ali, who had trained with al-Qaeda ideologues and Sudanese paramilitaries.
Though Ali and his lieutenants were killed, some loyalists fled to the Sahel, where they trained under al-Barnawi. Others regrouped in Borno, launching bloody reprisals against Nigerian soldiers. These alliances crystallized into the foundation of Ansaru’s militant wing.
Ali’s co-leader, Muhammed Yusuf, initially rejected violent insurgency but later returned from Saudi exile, launching radical preaching campaigns that delegitimized the Nigerian state.
By July 2009, Yusuf’s fiery rhetoric had ignited a full-blown insurgency, ending with his death in government custody. His thousands of followers regrouped under Abubakar Shekau, who rebranded the sect as Boko Haram and cemented ties with Barnawi’s AQIM, acquiring funds, arms, and training.
While Shekau’s reign was marked by gruesome massacres, Barnawi’s AQIM faction preferred calculated kidnappings and ambushes, presenting itself as disciplined, though no less dangerous.
Internal betrayals, crushing military operations, and Shekau’s ruthless bloodlust weakened AQIM, forcing it into dormancy by 2012. Out of this vacuum emerged Ansaru, positioning itself as al-Qaeda’s ideological outpost in Nigeria.
Ansaru sought to embed itself in Fulani communities, leveraging grievances, recruiting through clerics, and even releasing Fulfulde-language propaganda to widen its reach.
On January 15, 2020, Ansaru announced its return in blood. Six gallant Nigerian soldiers were killed in a deadly ambush on the Emir of Potiskum’s convoy in Kaduna. Dressed in deceptive military uniforms, the attackers shocked observers with their sophistication.
Two days later, Ansaru proudly claimed responsibility via al-Hijrah, al-Qaeda’s propaganda arm, marking its first public operation in Nigeria in seven years.
Between February and August 2020, Ansaru claimed three more sporadic yet deadly strikes, a sign it was regaining momentum. Nigeria’s deteriorating security landscape, pervasive banditry, communal clashes, and Sahelian insurgency, provided fertile ground for its expansion.
Reports of Ansaru’s ties with JNIM and cross-border arms traffickers grew. Nigerian forces struck back in February 2020, claiming to have obliterated a massive Ansaru camp in Kaduna, killing over 250 militants. Ansaru countered with propaganda, boasting of downing a military helicopter and killing dozens of soldiers.
By August 2020, the group claimed responsibility for the deaths of over 60 soldiers in Kaduna, though the figure remains disputed.
Into this chaos rose Abu Baraa, who climbed the ranks from a cameraman to Barnawi’s lieutenant before seizing leadership after Barnawi’s reported execution.
Abu Baraa is today ranked as one of the world’s deadliest terrorist masterminds, second on Africa’s most-wanted list and 13th on the FBI’s global fugitives list, trailing only jihadist kingpins like Iyad Ag Ghali of Mali.
Mahmuda, his equally ruthless lieutenant, has been described by analysts as “four Shekaus in one.” Abu Baraa, however, was dubbed the “Shekau multiplier” an even deadlier force than Boko Haram’s most infamous leader.
Together, they trained bandits, supplied Boko Haram and ISWAP with deadly IED expertise, and forged dangerous cross-border alliances with insurgent groups across the Sahel.
“This is not just Nigeria’s victory,” one intelligence officer told News Point Nigeria. “It is a continental milestone in the global fight against terrorism.”
Analysts argue the success reflects President Bola Tinubu’s renewed investment in military capacity, with new equipment, better intelligence frameworks, and improved troop welfare.
While Nigeria’s military has often been criticized for lapses, this time the public mood is jubilant.
“We must give our soldiers immense credit,” a Kaduna-based security expert said. “They achieved what even Western intelligence agencies have struggled to pull off.”
Yet, officials caution against complacency. Ansaru, with its al-Qaeda networks, arms pipelines, and rural infiltration, remains a formidable threat.
For now, though, Nigeria basks in a rare triumph. As one northern commentator aptly put it: “If Shekau was Nigeria’s nightmare, then Abu Baraa was Africa’s darkest shadow. His capture is a continental victory over terror.”