The son of Boko Haram’s late founder, Mohammed Yusuf, has been arrested in Chad, where he was reportedly leading a jihadist cell, multiple sources have confirmed.

Identified as Muslim Mohammed Yusuf, he was captured alongside five other suspected members of the Islamist movement originally founded by his father in Nigeria before his death in 2009, AFP reported.

For nearly 15 years, Boko Haram has carried out a bloody insurgency across the Lake Chad basin, launching deadly raids on communities and military outposts. Recent months have seen a resurgence of bold attacks in the region.

While Chadian police confirmed the arrest of six Boko Haram suspects, they did not immediately verify if one of them was the son of the group’s founder.

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 officer noted that the suspects were affiliated not directly with Boko Haram, but with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) — a splinter faction that emerged after a bitter ideological rift within the insurgency.

According to the source, Yusuf was still an infant when his father was killed during a Nigerian military crackdown in 2009 that left nearly 800 people dead. He is now believed to be about 18 years old.

Photographs obtained by AFP following the arrest in Chad appear to show a slim, short young man in a blue tracksuit, bearing a striking resemblance to his late father, standing among older detainees.

Yusuf, also known by the alias Abdrahman Mahamat Abdoulaye, is said to be the younger brother of ISWAP leader Habib Yusuf, widely known as Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi.

A former lieutenant of Mohammed Yusuf, who has since renounced the sect but remains familiar with its inner workings, also confirmed the arrest: “He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number,” he said.

Chadian police spokesman Paul Manga further disclosed from N’Djamena that those detained were “bandits who operate in the city… they are undocumented, they are members of Boko Haram.”

The development comes just days after the Nigerian government announced the capture of a notorious commander, Mahmud Mohammed Usman, also known as Abu Baraa, alongside his deputy, Mallam Mamuda.