Haram", whereas the dissidents continued to operate as ISWAP under Abu Musab al-Barnawi. The two factions consequently fought against each other while waging insurgencies against the local governments. After a period of reversals, Boko Haram and ISWAP launched new offensives in 2018 and 2019, again growing in strength. When Boko Haram's insurgency was at its peak in the mid-2010s, it was the world's deadliest terrorist organization, in terms of the number of people it killed. In a bid to ensure dialog between government and the deadly sect, the President Jonathan administration set up a committee to grant an amnesty to the Boko Haram sect. Some details of the amnesty includes granting of pardons to Boko Haram fighters and also listening to clamour from different ethnic groups under the sect with a bid to ending the violence perpetrated by the deadly sect. This amnesty was rejected by the sect in an audio broadcast that was sent by its leader on the grounds that they are fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north and that it is the government that is committing atrocities against Muslims. In May 2021 ISWAP attacked and overran Boko Haram militants in the Sambisa Forest and the leader of Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau was killed during the fighting, reportedly using a suicide vest. In August Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leading commander of ISWAP, was killed. Different reports of his death circulated, alleging that he had either been killed by the Nigerian Army or as a result of inter-ISWAP power struggles. After Shekau's death masses of Boko Haram militants surrendered while others defected to ISWAP. According to the Nigerian Defence Forces, as of April 5, a total of 51,114 rebels and families, consisting of 11,398 men, 15,381 women, and 24,335 children, have surrendered. Abubakar Sarki a top Boko Haram leader was killed in the Sambisa Forest in May 2022. In a battle of supremacy Sarki was leading a military convoy to Abu-Ubaida’s ISWAP camp, but they were intercepted by the Nigerian army. Sarki and some of his fighters escaped but ran onto another batch of soldiers where he met his demise. The radical preacher and leader of Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, a Boko Haram splinter group, Alhaji Ari-Difinoma, has surrendered to troops of the Nigerian Army on May 16, 2022. Background Nigerian statehood Nigeria amalgamated both the Northern and Southern protectorate in 1914, about