On Monday, Boko Haram released a new video of the kidnapped Nigerian girls being converted to Islam and offered in exchange for prisoners of the terror group. The schoolgirls are seen dressed in traditional Muslim clothing while reciting from the Quran and making declarations of faith.The 27-minute footage is is the first time the abducted girls have been shown since their April kidnapping.
“Praise be to Allah, the lord of the world,” the school girls in the video chant. Only an estimated 100 of the kidnapped girls appear in the video released by French news agency Agence France-Presse.
In the video, the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau offers to exchange the schoolgirls for Boko Haram prisoners. He appears in separate footage but never appears with the girls. The demands are different from a previously released video last week. In that video, Shekau rants that Western education should end and he was considering selling the girls into slavery.
About 276 girls are still missing since being abducted by members of the Boko Haram terrorist group. Some of the schoolgirls who were able to escape detailed the frightening experience of being kidnapped by officials of the Boko Haram. Speaking to CNN, one young girl reported that she and two friends ran into the nearby bush, heading toward something on fire to escape from their abductors. The girl, who asked not to be identified for fear of safety, said that Nigerian police were warned in advance by villagers from neighboring cities that militants were headed for them. The villagers called for police reinforcement but none came.
Nigerian officials are racing toward finding a way to bring back the girls home before they are killed, split up or sold. Some of the girls may have been forced into arranged marriages with members of Boko Haram. Recently the United States joined the fight to bring back the girls home in a message released on Mother’s Day.
“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,” First Lady Michelle Obama said.