On the night of April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped the schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in the north-east town of Chibok. “Let’s keep praying and campaigning for #BringBackOurGirls”. They didn’t want me near.
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Only fifteen out of the 219 girls still in captivity were shown in the video. She says Saratu was 15 when she was kidnapped and now is 17.
But the missing schoolgirls are not among them, despite several unconfirmed sightings.
Nigeria’s vice president Yemi Osinbajo is due in Chibok on Thursday for the anniversary of the kidnappings.
The UN Security Council says the kidnappings “may amount to crimes against humanity” and Britain, China, France, Israel and the U.S. have offered help.
The latest video, apparently filmed on Christmas Day 2015, shows the girls pleading with the Nigerian government to co-operate with militants on their release. “He shares the hope of the parents that the Chibok girls will ultimately be rescued and reunited with their families as well”.
The existence of the video was first disclosed by “The Daily Telegraph” last weekend, with sources close to Boko Haram saying that it had been produced about three months ago.
But none has been from Chibok.
The video was provided by Boko Haram as a show of good faith, at the request of negotiators trying to secure the release of the girls.
Despite the sketchy information provided in the video, Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed told CNN the girls in the video appeared “under no stress whatsoever”.
The last time the girls were seen publicly was in a May 2014 video released by Boko Haram. Now CNN is broadcasting a video purportedly showing more than a dozen of the girls, still alive as of December.
A top government official who declined to be named said an official reaction would only be made once the military had established the video’s authenticity.
They said they were being treated well but wanted to be with their families.
Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau has previously said the girls would be released in exchange for Islamist fighters held in Nigerian custody. Most of those girls have not been seen or heard from since.
Two mothers and 16 fathers have died since the mass abduction, some of them victims of Boko Haram attacks.
Boko Haram is a militant Islamic group that has existed for more than a decade in Nigeria, but it has become increasingly violent since an internal leadership change in 2009.
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Who are Boko Haram?
