Missing Chibok schoolgirls ‘appear to be in new Boko Haram video’
Children in conflicts
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Just some of the missing Chibok schoolgirls
By Aminu Abubakaar (Agence France-Presse)
Boko Haram today released a new video purportedly showing some of the schoolgirls kidnapped by the jihadist group from the Nigerian town of Chibok more than two years ago.
The footage was issued just days after embattled Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau denied claims that he had been replaced as the leader of the Nigeria-based group.
The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014 provoked global outrage and brought unprecedented attention to Boko Haram and its bloody quest to create a fundamentalist state in northeastern Nigeria.
While Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the group is 鶹APPtechnically defeated鶹APP his government has struggled to find the girls, in a political embarrassment for the leadership highlighting Boko Haram鶹APPs continued presence in the region.
鶹APPThey should know that their children are still in our hands,鶹APP said a man whose face was covered by a turban in the video posted on YouTube.
It was attributed to the old Boko Haram name, not the new Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), suggesting it was released by Shekau鶹APPs faction.
鶹APPThere is a number of the girls, about 40 of them, that have been married,鶹APP said the man in the 11-minute video, which shows girls with veils sitting on the ground and standing in the background.
鶹APPSome of them have died as a result of aerial bombardment.鶹APP
A previous video released by Boko Haram in 2014
The man calls on the Nigerian government to release Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the girls.
鶹APPThis focuses on using the girls as a bargaining chip,鶹APP Ryan Cummings, director at intelligence firm Signal Risk, told AFP.
鶹APPThe video shows that the war effort is hurting the operations of the group,鶹APP Cummings said.
鶹APPIt does have a sense of almost desperation from Boko Haram.鶹APP
Throughout 2015, the Nigerian military announced the rescue of hundreds of people, most of them women and children, who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram.
But the missing Chibok schoolgirls were not among them, despite several unconfirmed sightings.
Hadiza Usman, a leader of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, told AFP that he had seen the video and is contacting parents in order to confirm the identities of the girls.
鶹APPWhat we are doing at the moment is to get some relatives and the family to confirm fully that some of those girls were abducted,鶹APP Usman said.
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