Boko Haram released a new video on Monday claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls and 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. Police say 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 Quran, 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.All three pronounce their belief in Islam, dispassionately to the camera, sometimes looking down at the ground and apparently under duress.Most of the group behind them were seated cross-legged on the ground. 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.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 his native Hausa language as well as Arabic, he restates his claim of responsibility made in a video released last Monday and said the girls had converted to Islam while others had not. “These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with... we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” he said.He furher said that Boko Haram’s brothers in arms had been held and suggested that the girls would be released if the fighters were freed.