His arrest underscores the enduring legacy of Boko Haram’s founding family and the continuing threat posed by splinter factions across the region

The youngest son of Boko Haram’s late founder, Mohammed Yusuf, has been arrested in Chad for allegedly leading a jihadist cell linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), according to intelligence sources and former insurgents.

Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, also known as Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye, was detained alongside five suspected militants in an operation confirmed by Chadian police.

While the authorities declined to confirm his parentage, intelligence officials and individuals with inside knowledge of the group maintain that Yusuf, aged 18, was heading the six-man unit. A Nigerian intelligence officer stationed in the Lake Chad region told AFP: “The team was headed by Muslim, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder.”

The source explained that although arrested under Boko Haram suspicions, the cell in fact belonged to ISWAP, which splintered from Boko Haram following deep ideological divisions.

Photographs of the detainees, reviewed by AFP, showed a young man in a blue tracksuit with a notable resemblance to Mohammed Yusuf, the radical preacher whose death in 2009 during a Nigerian military crackdown sparked an insurgency that has devastated the Lake Chad region for more than a decade.

A former lieutenant of the late Boko Haram leader, now a critic of the movement, confirmed the arrest.

“He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number,” he stated.

Chadian police spokesperson Paul Manga confirmed the arrests, describing the suspects as “bandits who operate in the city… they are undocumented, they are members of Boko Haram.”

He added that the group had in fact been apprehended “a few months ago”.

Yusuf is also the younger brother of ISWAP’s current leader, Habib Yusuf, known as Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi.

His arrest underscores the enduring legacy of Boko Haram’s founding family and the continuing threat posed by splinter factions across the region.

Nigeria’s counter-terrorism centre and national intelligence agency have yet to issue an official statement.