Kidnapped girls: Video may give clues to location
It is the first public sight of the girls since more than 300 were kidnapped from a north-eastern school on the night of April 14 — exactly four weeks ago.
Families have said most girls abducted are Christians but the about 100 shown under a tree in the video recite Muslim prayers in Arabic. Many are barefoot. Some appear fearful, others desolate. Fifty-three escaped by themselves and 276 are missing, police say.
The mass abductions and failure of Nigeria’s government and military to rescue them has aroused national and international outrage. Last week Nigeria belatedly accepted offers of help from the United States, Britain and others.
The video came through channels that have provided previous messages from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who speaks in the video in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria.
He is shown in military fatigues cradling an assault rifle on the video that is imprinted with the Boko Haram insignia of a Koran resting on two crossed assault rifles and below the black Jihadi flag.
Earlier yesterday, Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan agreed to attend a security summit in Paris to focus on the Boko Haram terrorist network, according to a French official.
France is still waiting for confirmation from leaders of the four countries bordering Nigeria — Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger — on whether they will attend the event on Saturday.
Representatives from Britain, the EU and the United States will also be invited to the event. French president Francois Hollande had proposed the summit.
In Chibok, the town from where the girls were abducted, parents were hoping to watch the video and identify their daughters, said one of the town’s civil leaders, Pogu Bitrus.
“There’s an atmosphere of hope, hope that these girls are alive, whether they have been forced to convert to Islam or not,” he said.
The video shows about 100 of the girls, indicating they may have been broken up into smaller groups as some reports have indicated, Mr Bitrus said.
He said he had looked at the video and that the surroundings appear very like the Sambisa Forest, some 25km from Chibok, into which the girls were first taken.
Michelle Obama has taken the unique step of delivering her husband’s weekly presidential address to express outrage at the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls.
Speaking for the first time instead of the US president, before what was Mothers’ Day in the US on Sunday, she said the couple were “outraged and heartbroken” over the abduction of more than 300 girls from a school in Chibok on 14 April.
“What happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident. It’s a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions.
“I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government’s efforts to find these girls and bring them home. In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams, and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
