Boko Haram releases first beheading video since pledging allegiance to Isis

The Nigerian terror group pledged allegiance to Isis in March of this year

Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shjeka has recently pledged the group's allegiance to ISIS (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty)

Boko Haram has released a beheading video, its first since pledging allegiance to Isis in March.

The ten minute long footage by the Nigerian militant group mimics the violent videos released by Isis propaganda clips.

It begins by showing shooting between Boko Haram gunmen and what appear to be Nigerian soldiers. Members of the terror group are then shown next to soldiers they have killed, showing the security badge of one victim to the camera.

One soldier is made to kneel at the feet of Boko Haram members who wield guns. The video then shows the soldier’s decapitated body.

The Nigerian Bulletin reports that the ‘west Africa’ insignia present in the top-left corner of the footage suggests that the group have set up a new ‘media wing’.

In March of this year Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Isis (also known as Islamic State) and announced it would adopt the name “Islamic State’s West Africa Province”. An audio statement was released on the former’s social media channels, said to be the voice of the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau.

More than 200 people have been killed in Nigeria in the last fortnight as part of a recent surge in violence by Boko Haram. It has been claimed that the increased bloodshed has been due to an Isis directive to intensify violence during the holy month of Ramadan.

Thousands have been killed and about 1.5 million displaced during Boko Haram's six-year-old insurgency to carve out a state adhering to strict Islamic law in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer. At the start of the year, it controlled a swathe of territory larger than Belgium in the northeast of the country.

Boko Haram has since been pushed back with the help of offensives launched by troops from Chad and Niger while Cameroon has fought them off along its borders.