All of these reports base their claim on the AFP report that Shekau had said that God had made Gwoza “part of the Islamic caliphate.” However, the U.S. government’s Open Source Center translates the statement differently, as: “Thanks be to God who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it a state among the Islamic states.” The word Shekau uses here is “state” (dawlah), not “caliphate” (khilafah). Shekau’s Arabic statement can be seen at 1:42 of this video.

Shekau did not use the word “caliphate” in his statement, much less declare one. The inaccurate reporting should be corrected.