The leader for the Islamist militant group Boko Haram says the girls will not be released until Boko Haram prisoners are freed.
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Rifkatu Ayuba and Mary Ishay said they recognised their daughters, and another mother, Yana Galang, identified five of the missing girls.
Seeing successful business ownership as a way to escape poverty, many Nigerian youths – ranging from butchers and beauticians to tailors and traders – accepted loans for their businesses in return for joining Boko Haram, Mercy Corps said.
Parents of the 219 girls were on Thursday set to hold a prayer vigil at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok to mark the second anniversary of the kidnapping. The government of Nigeria is ambivalent about the group’s demand because it does not want to give the militant group an advantage in future situations, according to the Inquisitr. Boko Haram suicide bombings have spread outside Nigeria, carried out by children with concealed explosives.
Frequency of suicide bombings rose from 32 in 2014 to 151 previous year, extending beyond Nigeria’s borders for the first time: at least 89 attacks were in Nigeria, with 39 in Cameroon, 16 in Chad and seven in Niger.
Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani, who has attempted to negotiate the girls’ release with Boko Haram, told the Associated Press news agency that he found the video credible.
He said the new video showed that there had been “little transformation in their (Chibok girls) physical appearance”. Advocates from all walks of life have consistently reminded Nigerians that the injustice done to the Chibok girls – and by default, each and every single Nigerian – remains unattended to.
Representing a ten-fold year-on-year increase, these figures are all the more alarming as estimations reveal that over 75 percent of those children involved in attacks were girls.
The girls were filmed saying they were being treated well but wanted to go home and be with their families.
Many have feared that Boko Haram had strapped explosives to the students to use them as weapons as the group has increasingly forced women and girls to detonate themselves in public places.
The kidnapping is a touchpaper political issue in Nigeria.
Boko Haram’s seven-year campaign of violence has killed 20,000 people and displaced more than 2 million others.
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Hundreds of parents left, day after day, night after night, and then months with no information. “They should do more to bring back our girls, guarantee the protection of civilians in the north-east of the county and ensure access to education for children in the region”. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.
