A young son of Boko Haram's founder has been arrested in Chad, where he was allegedly leading a terrorist cell, according to both an intelligence source and a former member of Boko Haram.

Mohammed Yusuf was arrested alongside five other suspected members of the terrorist group, which was founded in neighbouring Nigeria a few years before his birth. His father, Mohammed Yusuf, founded the terrorist organisation.

Boko Haram has sown terror around the Lake Chad region for around 15 years, and has mounted increasingly brazen attacks on villages and military bases in recent months.

Chadian police confirmed having arrested six Boko Haram members but could not say if one of them was the older Yusuf's son.

Teenager

A Nigerian intelligence source in the Lake Chad region told AFP at the weekend that they received a report of the arrest of a six-man terrorist cell in Chad.

"The team was headed by Yusuf, the youngest son of the late Boko Haram founder," said the source.

The source however said that the cell belonged to a rival terrorist group which splintered off from Boko Haram over ideological disagreements.

The source added that Yusuf was an infant when his father was killed in 2009 during a military crackdown on Boko Haram that left some 800 people dead, giving his age as 18.

'Bandits'

Photos seen by AFP after the arrests in Chad, show a young man – with a striking resemblance to Yusuf – standing next to far older men.

"He and the team were arrested by Chadian security. They are six in number," he told AFP.

Chadian police said they had arrested "bandits who operate in the city... they are undocumented, they are members of Boko Haram", police spokesman Paul Manga told AFP from N'djamena.

He said the cell was arrested "a few months ago."

Nigeria's counter-terrorism centre and the national intelligence service did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.