The parents of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram Islamist extremist militants are demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari act swiftly after the terror group released video over the weekend announcing some of the students had died from a series of airstrikes.
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Olonishakin said, “That (call for the swap of the girls with Boko Haram fighters) is a political decision to be taken”. “I’m very, very happy I saw my daughter on the video and I’m very happy she’s alive”. Another is interviewed asking parents to appeal to the government. “We are just being careful and cautious to ensure that we are talking to the right people, especially with the news that there is a split in the leadership”, said Mohammed, according to Nigerian daily Vanguard.
“There is no doubt that these individuals have links with Boko Haram terrorists and have contacts with them”, he said.
“When I heard her voice, I realised she is my daughter”, Kanu Yakubu told reporters in Abuja. For the rumours people have been saying, that the girls are not even alive. The group claims their deaths were the result of a military airstrike – though the military disputed that claim. She also states that 40 of the girls have been “married” to Islamic extremist fighters.
James Zenn, an analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, told The New York Times that “it appears that the girls in video are in the custody of Mr. Shekau’s group”, citing “logos seen in the video and a references to Mr. Shekau as the leader”.
The girls were abducted from a boarding school as the assembled for an examination in April 2014.
While 57 girls were able to escape nearly immediately after the mass kidnapping, more than 200 remained Boko Haram’s captives.
A girl who gave her name as Maida Yakubu speaks in the Chibok dialect and chokes back tears as she describes an air strike by Nigerian armed forces. The girl said they have been in captivity for at least two years.
Boko Haram, which pledges allegiance to ISIS, has been devastating Nigeria for years.
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Asked if the government was conceding to the request of the Islamist group, Mohammed said the government was doing everything possible to secure the release of the girls and “put an end to the disgusting saga of their abduction”. The abduction brought Boko Haram to the world’s attention and touched off the “Bring Back Our Girls” social media campaign.
