By Onize Ohikere, World News.
A screen grab from the video.
A new video released by extremist group Boko Haram on Sunday (8/14/16) purports to show up to 50 of the school girls kidnapped from Chibok in 2014. Militants in the video say several girls died in the Nigerian military’s recent air strikes and demand the government release detained fighters in exchange for the remaining girls.
In the video, one masked fighter issues a warning to the Nigerian government in the Hausa language as some 50 girls stand and sit behind him, some holding babies.
“Presently, some of the girls are crippled, some are terribly sick, and some of them, as I had said, died during bombardment by the Nigerian military,” the fighter said. “If our members in detention are not freed, let the government and parents of the Chibok girls know that they will never find these girls again.”
The video shows footage of the bodies of girls Boko Haram claims died from airstrikes. Nigeria’s air force has carried out increased raids and the army has freed thousands of captives, almost none from Chibok. But army spokesman Rabe Abubakar said the military is still working to confirm whether the victims died from the airstrikes and not from other causes.
One of the Chibok girls, identified as Dorcas Yakubu, implored the Nigerian government to heed Boko Haram’s request, backing the claim that several girls died in airstrikes.
“There is no kind of suffering we haven’t seen,” Yakubu said as some of the girls cried silently behind her. “Tell the government to give them their people, so we can come home to you. The suffering is too much.”
Related article: New video shows abducted Chibok girls as BBOG seeks support of UN, US, UK, others