Boko Haram on Sunday released a new video purportedly showing some of the schoolgirls kidnapped by the jihadist group from the Nigerian town of Chibok more than two years ago.
The footage was issued just days after embattled Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau denied claims that he had been replaced as the leader of the Nigeria-based group.
The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014 provoked global outrage and brought unprecedented attention to Boko Haram and its bloody quest to create a fundamentalist state in northeastern Nigeria.
Militants on the back-foot 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. “They should know that their children are still in our hands,” said a man whose face was covered by a turban in the video posted on YouTube.
It was attributed to the old Boko Haram name, not the new Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), suggesting it was released by Shekau’s faction.
“There is a number of the girls, about 40 of them, that have been married,” said the man in the 11-minute video, which shows girls with veils sitting on the ground and standing in the background.
“Some of them have died as a result of aerial bombardment.”
The man calls on the Nigerian government to release Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the girls.
Last week, Boko Haram’s leader Shekau appeared in a video vowing to fight on, amid a leadership scuffle between him and new Islamic State (IS)-backed rival Abu Musab al-Barnawi.
Throughout 2015, the Nigerian military announced the rescue of hundreds of people, most of them women and children, who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram.
Confirming the identities But the missing Chibok schoolgirls were not among them, despite several unconfirmed sightings.
Hadiza Usman, a leader of the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ movement, told AFP that he had seen the video and is contacting parents in order to confirm the identities of the girls.
Reacting to the video, the Nigerian government said that it is “in touch” with Boko Haram. “Since this is not the first time we have been contacted over the issue, we want to be doubly sure that those we are in touch with are who they claim to be,” Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement.
