Video of girls abducted by Boko Haram surfaces in Nigeria
A video purporting to show some of the girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria has been released, two years after they were taken from their school.
Listen to Alexander MacDonald's report:
276 young girls were abducted in April, 2014 by the terrorist group Boko Haram which calls itself the Islamic State Africa Western Province. The video just released shows 15 girls clothed in hijabs who are asked to state their names and addresses.
The girls are not emaciated and show no visible signs of abuse but some of their parents who have been shown the video break down in tears when they see their children for the first time in 2 years. It is the first video of the girls to surface since May 2014.
Identified by their parents, at least this is proof that some of the abducted children are alive.
The video was sent to the Nigerian government and obtained by the US news network CNN. In the video the girls plead with the Nigerian government to co-operate with the militants in order to secure their release.
Boko Haram literally means, “Western eductation is forbidden” and its leader has said the abducted girls have converted to Islam. He has threatened to force them into marriage with his fighters or sell them into slavery.
The kidnapping of the girls has become a political issue in Nigeria with the government and military criticized for their handling of the incident and failing to track down the girls.
No member of Boko Haram was visible in the video and local officials were not immediately available to give details on how they received the video.
About 2,000 girls and boys have been abducted by the Boko Haram since 2014, with many used as sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers, according to Amnesty International. A recent Unicef report documents how nearly 1 in 5 suicide attacks conducted by Boko Haram uses a child, two-thirds of whom were girls.
Of the 276 girls originally abducted by Boko Haram two years ago, 57 were able to escape, leaving 219 girls still missing.
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