He says: “Presently, some of the girls are crippled, some are terribly sick and some of them, as I had said, died during bombardment by the Nigerian military”. The Nigerian government said it is trying its best to work towards the girls’ release, who are thought to be in northern Nigeria.
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The mass kidnapping caused condemnation around the world and sparked the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign which received support from leading public figures including Michelle Obama and human rights activist Malala Yousafzai. One girl escaped this year, saying she had been led to freedom by her Boko Haram “husband”.
Sunday’s video is another proof of life.
Bukky Shonibare, the founder of Girl Child Africa, says several parents were able to spot their daughters in the video released Sunday on Twitter.
Last week, Boko Haram’s leader Shekau appeared in a video vowing to fight on, amid a leadership scuffle between him and new Islamic State-backed rival Abu Musab al-Barnawi.
The young woman in the video begs for help to free them.
“We want the government to move quickly, because some girls are suffering, they are very very sick, some are in a bad condition”, he added.
‘Every day we are in pains and suffering, so are our babies. “This in short is our message to the Federal Government and the parents of the Chibok Girls: as long as the government does not release our people, we will also never release these girls”, a masked man said in Hausa, one of Nigeria’s main languages.
One militant in the video said the group had no one now negotiating with the Nigerian government, insisting that the group “remains cohesive and strong” contrary to claims that it has been decimated by the army.
In recent months, Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide and bomb attacks as the Nigerian military pushes the group out of territories they once controlled.
Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has left some 20,000 people dead and forced at least 2.6 million others to flee their homes.
Aid workers say there is a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in newly freed but still unsafe areas where half a million people are starving and babies dying daily.
“It does have a sense of nearly desperation from Boko Haram”.
Throughout 2015, the Nigerian military announced the rescue of hundreds of people, a lot of them women and children, who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram.
An armed fighter appearing in the video demands that the government release militants it has detained.
“Since they they went to that place, I didn’t hear anything from her”, he told reporters in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
The number of girls identified from the video has now risen significantly, he said.
A girl is picked out to answer questions about who she is and she gives her name as Maida Yakubu.
‘One of our members has recognised a girl.
‘This focuses on using the girls as a bargaining chip, ‘ he told AFP.
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Following the emergence of the video, Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed said the government was dealing with Boko Haram’s request.
