By Reuters -
Three
mothers of school girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from Chibok in
northeast Nigeria two years ago said they had identified their daughters in a
video released by Islamist group, the first possible sighting of the girls
since May 2014, according to Reuters report.
 |
| Purported video photograph of kidnapped Chibok girls |
About 15 girls featured
in the video released to local officials on Tuesday, saying they were from the
Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and pleading with the Nigerian
government to cooperate with Boko Haram on their release.
The girls were filmed
saying they were being treated well but wanted to go home and be with their
families.
Boko Haram militants
abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok on April 14, 2014, with 57 students
managing to escape but 219 still missing despite a global campaign
#bringbackourgirls involving celebrities and U.S. first lady Michelle Obama.
 |
| Some parents of the Chibok girls watching the video. |
Various false leads have
raised hopes of finding the girls but their whereabout remains unknown.
Mothers Rifkatu Ayuba and
Mary Ishaya said they recognized their daughters, Saratu and Hauwa, in the
video, while a third mother, Yana Galang, identified five of the missing girls.
Local officials said more identifications were needed.
“The girls were looking very, very well,”
Galang said in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation after
viewing the video at a screening organized by local officials in Maiduguri,
capital of Borno state in northeast Nigeria.
The three mothers were
invited to the viewing by the chairman of Chibok Local Government Area, Bana
Lawan, who confirmed that he had paid their travel costs to Maiduguri, the
state capital.
The kidnapping of the
girls has become a political issue in Nigeria with the government and military
criticized for their handling of the incident and failing to track down the
girls.
“They were definitely our
daughters … all we want is for the government to bring back our girls,” said
Galang, adding all the girls were wearing hijabs in the video.
No member of Boko Haram
was visible in the video and local officials were not immediately available to
give details on how they received the video.
“We only heard a man’s
voice and saw his finger pointing at the girls one after the other,” Galang
said.
She said the girls in the
video spoke in Hausa, a language widely spoken in Nigeria, and Kibaku, the
local Chibok language.
Galang said one mother,
Ayuba, was relieved to see her daughter as she had heard a rumor shortly after
the kidnapping that her daughter had been killed by Boko Haram.
“She was very happy to
see her in the video … her daughter is alive,” Galang said.
About 2,000 girls and
boys have been abducted by the Boko Haram since 2014, with many used as sex
slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers, according to Amnesty International.
This week a report from
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Boko Haram child suicide
bombings have surged 11-fold in West Africa over the last year, with children
as young as 8, mostly girls, used to bomb schools and markets.
UNICEF said there were 44
child suicide bombings in West Africa in 2015, up from four in 2014, mostly in
Cameroon and Nigeria.
Boko Haram’s six-year
campaign to set up an Islamic emirate in northeastern Nigeria has killed some
15,000 people, according to the U.S. military.
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