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Boko Haram: Free our fighters if you want your girls back

The seizure of the Chibok girls brought attention to the Boko Haram conflict that has claimed at least 20,000 lives since 2009.

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The man also implored parents of the living girls to put pressure on the government to release Boko Haram fighters from prisons across Nigeria, Al Jazeera reported.

“The speaker also said that 40 of the schoolgirls were married [to Boko Haram fighters], some were killed by airstrikes and there were several injuries”. He demands the release of Boko Haram prisoners in exchange for the girls.

According to the Associated Press, the latest video includes an ultimatum to the families warning that they will never find the girls again if the fighters are not released first.

The video goes on to show bodies from an alleged air raid, including that of a girl whose eyes flicker open briefly. Although the authenticity of the video has not been confirmed, the Nigerian government has not commented on it.

The video begins with a shot of a masked man, carrying a gun, speaking to the camera.

Muslim girls attend a demonstration calling on the government to rescue 276 girls who were kidnapped from a government secondary school, in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, May 5, 2014. This is likely to avoid a repeat of an embarrassing hoax a few months after the girls were kidnapped which saw the government negotiate with the wrong people.

The declaration of the three individuals wanted by the Army followed the release of a video early Sunday showing scores of the abducted girls. She also states that 40 of the girls have been “married” to Islamic extremist fighters. In the video, she claims that some of her kidnapped classmates died in aerial bombardments by the Nigerian Air Force.

At the meeting, members of the group said the present administration had failed Nigerians by not fulfilling its promise of rescuing the Chibok girls. Of the 219 still missing, just one was found, Amina Ali, in May this year near the Sambisa Forest area of Borno state, a known Boko Haram hideout.

Nigerian Schoolgirl Rescued After Two Years Of Boko Haram Captivity Meets Buhari.

In an interview with RT.com, the mother of a Chibok captive spoke of the profound impact the girls’ abduction has had on the community.

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“We are on top of the situation but we are being extremely careful because the situation has been compounded by the split in the leadership of Boko Haram”, Mohammed said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. They believe that Boko Haram’s longtime leader, Abubakar Shekau, has released this video to assert his authority over the militant group.

This video grab taken from a video released by Boko Haram yesterday shows what is claimed to be one of the group's fighters at an undisclosed location standing in front of girls allegedly kidnapped from Chibok in April 2014.- AFP