Lagos: Abu Bakr Shekau says he is alive and still the leader of the Boko Haram terror group, denying reports he is dead, according to a new audio message quoted on social media on Sunday.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio message. Social media feed of Site Intelligence, which monitors Islamist militant groups, quoted a new audio message released from Shekau denying reports that he is unable to serve as leader.

There have been several claims by Nigeria’s military over the last few years that Shekau has been killed but he keeps resurfacing in new videos or it could be “impostors” posing with the same name, security sources have said.

Last week Chad’s President Idriss Deby said Boko Haram leader Shekau was wounded and has been replaced as leader by Mahmoud Daoud, adding that Shekau went to Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, after he was wounded.

Deby said the new Boko Haram leader, about whom little is known, was open to the idea of talks with Abuja.

“Infidel media published that I’m dead, or sick and can’t speak, this is an utter lie,” Rita Katz, director of Site Intelligence, posted on her social media site quoting Shekau as saying to Daesh leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

“If this was true, how is that I can speak now?” said the message signed by the Daesh head of west Africa province.

Shekau’s last video appearance was in February, when a person claiming to be him — analysts believe he may have been impersonated — threatened to disrupt Nigeria’s presidential elections held the following month.

The group has released at least five videos since then but Shekau has not appeared in any of them.

Suspected members of Boko Haram have killed more than 600 people in Africa’s most populous nation in a spate of bombings and shootings since Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated as president on May 29, according to a Reuters tally.

Efforts to reach an agreement to end the violence, including a 2014 deal fostered by Chad, have repeatedly failed during the six-year insurgency waged by the group in its bid to set up a state of its own in the northeast adhering to strict Islamic laws.