The #BringBackOurGirls movement was hit with a massive blow today when a video released by the Islamic extremist kidnappers announced they would sell the girls on the human trafficking market. A man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau admits that he is responsible for kidnapping the young girls.
Shekau rants that he will sell the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, in the video obtained and translated by CNN from the local Hausa language. He continued in the nearly hour-long video that Allah has commanded him to sell the girls and that Western education should end. Members of Boko Haram are shown shooting automatic rifles in the air while chanting, “God is great,” prior to his speech.
Reports released last week have estimated that more than 300 girls were abducted when members of the extremist group overpowered school security officials and forced them into truck. Of those known, 276 remain in captivity and 53 escaped. Those who remain in captivity may have been forced to marry their kidnappers, who paid $12 as a bride price. Others are thought to have been carried into neighboring Cameroon and Chad. Some of the escapees said that their captors said they were members of Boko Haram.
Since the girls’ April 15 kidnapping, outrage has grown that officials are not taking the proper strides to bring the young girls back home. Social media campaigns sprung up to bring the issue to the forefront of the media’s conscious. Piers Morgan asked:
What are you waiting for @BarackObama @David_Cameron ? Do something. #BringBackOurGirls #NIGERIA
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 5, 2014
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed Sunday wherever these girls are, they’ll get them out. He also made it public that many of the girls’ family have been uncooperative with working with police out of fear for their safety. A newly formed presidential committee is working on a strategy for the release of the girls.
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