MAIDUGURI,
Nigeria — A new clue about the fate of hundreds of girls kidnapped by
an Islamist extremist group in Nigeria emerged Monday with the release
of a video apparently showing many of the girls and new threats to “sell
them” and “hold them as slaves” until Boko Haram members are released
from prison.
If
genuine, it would be the first public glimpse of the girls since they
were seized on April 14 from a school in Chibok, an isolated village
some 80 miles from this regional capital in #Nigeria’s far northeast,
where an Islamist insurgency has bedeviled the authorities for years.
The video shows dozens of girls
dressed in head scarves and long gowns that cover their bodies but
reveal their faces. They are praying and seated cross-legged in the type
of scrubland that is pervasive in this region, not far from the Sahara
Desert. One of the girls is shown reciting the opening of the Quran;
three express allegiance to Islam; two say they had converted from
Christianity.
It was impossible to fully authenticate the video, and one parent
reached in #Chibok said nobody there had seen it because there is no
electricity, much less Internet access.
The
video contains a disjointed, ranting message from Boko Haram’s leader,
Abubakar Shekau, in Hausa and Arabic. In it, he acknowledges the
worldwide attention the kidnappings have drawn.
“Just
because we kidnapped these young girls, you are making noise? Allah has
blessed most of them with accepting Islam,” he says. “You are making so
much noise about Chibok, Chibok, Chibok. Only Allah knows how many
women we are holding.”
He
repeated the slavery threat he made in a video released a week ago.
“There are many verses in the Quran that allows the seizing of slaves.
Abduction of slaves is allowed,” he said. “It exists, it exists, yes, it
exists.”
The
schools in this region had been closed for weeks before the kidnapping
because of Boko Haram attacks. But the girls had come back to the Chibok
government school to take an exam, and were staying overnight. The
Islamists overpowered what little police protection the town had and
seized more than 300 girls. About 50 were subsequently able to flee
their captors
.
A
worldwide effort has begun to try to rescue them, with the United
States, France, Britain and most recently Israel pledging to help. The
Nigerian military has waged an aggressive, at times brutal, offensive in
the region, but so far it has proved unable to make any advances toward
the girls’ recovery.
But
in Monday’s video, Mr. Shekau apparently offered a hint about what
might induce him to release the girls from Boko Haram’s clutches.
“We
will never release them until our brethren are released,” he said. “Our
brethren that are held in Borno in Yobe, in Kano, in Kaduna, in Abuja,
in Lagos and Enugu. Our brethren that are held all over Nigeria,” Mr.
Shekau said.
The
Nigerian government has not acknowledged any negotiation with the
group, though one high official in the north has said some type of
bargaining appears to be going on.
Source: Huffington Post
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