A Boko Haram video posted Sunday shows dozens of the 218 girls who were abducted from a remote school in April 2014, with one saying that “some” have died in military airstrikes.
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The video was released by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, which abducted the girls, and features a masked militant holding a gun and standing in front of the group of young women.
“They should immediately release our brethren in their custody”, the man said, warning that if the prisoners were not released the government would never be able to rescue the girls.
The Nigerian Army had declared Salkida and two others identified as Ahmed Bolori and Aisha Wakil, wanted in connection with the missing Chibok girls on Sunday.
The Nigerian army says its troops have killed 16 Boko Haram “remnants” in a counter-attack in Kangarwa, Borno state, army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement on Monday, August 15, The Cable reports.
While Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the group is “technically defeated” his government has struggled to find the girls, in a political embarrassment for the leadership highlighting Boko Haram’s continued presence in the region.
About 50 girls appear in the video, according to the BBC.
Her father, Kawo Yakubu, said he hadn’t seen his daughter on any video since her abduction and at least he had now heard her.
Salkida said he had repeatedly used his privileged access to some Boko Haram commanders to help Nigeria broker an agreement with the militants to free the girls.
“I’m very, very happy I saw my daughter on the video and I’m very happy she’s alive”, Yakubu Kabu told CNN.
He said that people will soon forget about the girls once the effect of the video reduces but the government is working tirelessly to ensure the return of the girls.
The #BringBackOurGirls group has sharply criticized the federal government for failing to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
“While other hostages held by terrorists have also caused some media interest – the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Palestine or the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, for example – it was rather localised”, he said.
A separate scene shows bodies on the ground, suggesting they were killed in aerial bombardments by Nigeria’s military.
“We are on top of the situation”, he said.
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Nigeria has witnessed more than seven years of fighting that has left more than 20,000 people dead and driven 2.2 million people from their homes.
