A masked, camouflaged fighter who appeared in the 111/2-minute video said numerous schoolgirls had died in the strikes, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant jihadi groups.
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The Islamist group seized more than 270 girls from their school in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, in April 2014, part of an insurgency that began in 2009 and has killed about 15,000 people.
They are accused of withholding information that could unravel the abducted Chibok girls’ location.
Boko Haram has released a video purporting to show recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago.
He portrays the government as the villain and says his group is keen on a prisoner swap – the girls for Boko Haram fighters being held in Nigerian jails. “But we are being extremely careful because the situation has been compounded by the split in the leadership of Boko Haram”, he said in a statement.
The video shows a militant warning in the Hausa language that if President Muhammadu Buhari’s government battles Boko Haram with firepower, the girls won’t be seen again. As the Guardian reports, she identifies herself as Maida Yakubu. Otherwise, they will never be released.
She is also disappointed at the government’s response to the plight of the girls. “We are still in the process of confirming a few of the girls”, Mr Abdullahi said from Nigeria’s capital Abuja. Some people has said the kidnapping is not true. The only thing that can be done is to give them their people so we can go home. “Now I see her and I know she’s ok”.
The military has also made concerted efforts to rescue them, with several appeals made to Nigerians with any information to volunteer to the military or security agencies to enable them rescue the girls. Several dozen of the girls managed to escape by jumping from the trucks and running into the bush.
The mass abduction brought Boko Haram to the world’s attention and even got the participation of USA first lady Michelle Obama in the #Bring Back Our Girls social media campaign, promising her husband would do all in his power to help liberate them.
In the video published on social media, a masked man stands behind the girls and speaks to the camera.
At the end of the video, a number of unidentified bodies could be seen on the ground. He says that some of the girls have been wounded and have life-threatening injuries, and that 40 have been “married”.
The Bring Back our Girls campaign group said there were only three choices available – government’s negotiation to rescue the girls, government use military operations to rescue the girls or a combination of both.
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It is unclear when the video was shot, but it appears to be done in a similar style to a video obtained by CNN in April 2016 and other previously released Boko Haram videos.
