KANO, Nigeria: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared on video for the first time in more than a year on Thursday, rejecting rumors about his death but appearing to signal that his time as chief of the militant group may be coming to an end.

In a message, the dejected-looking Shakau declared: “For me the end has come.”

“This is a message of greeting and joy for you to see my face,” said Shekau, who in March 2015 pledged allegiance to the Daesh group in an audio message.

“This is my desire: That whoever sees this will hear nothing but greetings between me and you,” he said.

Unlike messages from the Nigerian militants at the end of 2014 and start of 2015, which were slickly edited and closely resembled those of the Daesh group, the video was poorly shot.

It was also posted on YouTube rather than via Twitter accounts linked to Daesh supporters and websites linked to fellow extremists

Shekau, who looked thin, delivered a speech to his followers in front of a lime green background, with the Boko Haram black flag superimposed in crude graphics.

There was no indication of when or where the video was shot.

Shekau also referred in the past tense to the Borno state town of Gwoza, which Boko Haram overran in mid-2014 and declared a caliphate.

The town was later retaken in a military counter-offensive that has seen Boko Haram-controlled towns, villages and territory seized back over the last year.

Boko Haram supply lines are said to have been squeezed, preventing them for sourcing fuel for hit-and-run attacks and conventional fighting, although suicide bombings persist.