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LAGOS – Boko Haram released a new video on
Monday claiming to show the missing schoolgirls,
alleging the teenagers had converted to Islam and
would not be released until all militant prisoners
were freed.
The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, speaks on
the video obtained by AFP for 17 minutes before
showing what he said were the girls, in Muslim
dress and praying in an undisclosed rural location.
A total of 276 girls were abducted on April 14 from
the northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state,
which has a sizeable Christian community. Some
223 are still missing.
The footage shows about 130 girls in black and
grey full-length hijabs sitting on scrubland near
trees, reciting the first chapter of the Muslim holy
book, the Koran, and holding their palms upwards
in prayer.
Three of the girls are interviewed. Two say they
were Christian and had converted while one said
she was Muslim. Most of the group were seated.
The girls appeared calm and one said that they had
not been harmed.
There was no indication of when the video was
taken, although the quality is better than on
previous occasions and at one point an armed man
is seen in shot with a hand-held video camera.
Boko Haram has been waging an increasingly
deadly insurgency in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim
north since 2009, attacking schools teaching a
“Western” curriculum, churches and government
targets.
Civilians, though, have borne the brunt of recent
violence, with more than 1,500 killed this year
alone while tens of thousands have been displaced
after their homes and businesses were razed.
Nigeria’s government has been criticised for its
lack of immediate response to the kidnapping but
has been forced to act after Shekau threatened to
sell the girls as slaves.
President Goodluck Jonathan has now accepted
help from the United States, Britain, France, China
and Israel, which have sent specialist teams to
help in the search effort.
In the video, Shekau appears in front of a lime
green canvas backdrop wearing combat fatigues
and carrying an automatic weapon. Shekau does
not appear in the same shot as the girls at any
point during the 27-minute video.
Speaking in Hausa and Arabic, he restates his
claim of responsibility made in a video released
last Monday and said the girls had converted to
Islam.
“These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves
with… we have indeed liberated them. We have
indeed liberated them. Do you know we have
liberated them? These girls have become
Muslims,” he said.
The militant leader said that Boko Haram’s
brothers in arms had been held in prison for up to
five years and suggested that the girls would be
released if the fighters were freed.
“We will never release them (the girls) until after
you release our brethren. Here I mean those girls
who have not submitted (converted to Islam),” he
added.
Boko Haram has used kidnapping of women and
young girls in the past and Shekau indicated that
more were being held.
Eleven girls were abducted from the Gwoza area of
Borno state on May 4.