Ordeal Of Chibok Girls Goes On In New Video
Looking timid and staring at the ground the girls, among more than 200 taken by Boko Haram in 2014, are questioned in the footage.
Video: Islamist group Boko Haram has released a video showing 15 of the 276 schoolgirls it kidnapped from the Nigerian town of Chibok two years ago.The footage was apparently filmed in December and given to government officials by the jihadists as proof of life for negotiations.One by one, subdued and quietly spoken they answered their names when asked to.Looking timid and staring at the ground they are asked where they were taken from. Chibok school, they say.
This is all we have seen of the girls whose fate outraged the world when they were taken on the night of 14 April 2014, apart from one short video released a few weeks into their capture.They were asleep in their beds when deranged Islamist extremists with the group Boko Haram raided their school setting light to buildings and seizing all those it didn't kill or who couldn't flee fast enough.The world didn't notice until a social media campaign caught fire. #bringbackourgirls caught the attention of millions.Even America's first lady Michelle Obama became involved. Her husband sent drones, advisers and intelligence operatives.Britain and other European nations also helped.But the war against Boko Haram remains unwon.There have been many false leads but the girls remain lost.Boko Haram's name is also its mission statement.It means 'Western education is forbidden'.It is an Islamist group that has killed thousands, abducted many other young girls and slaughtered young boys.It has destroyed almost 1,000 schools and forced as many as 1,500 to close.It has been extraordinarily effective at implementing its aims in the areas it has ravaged.The Nigerian government and its international backers have been ineffective in finding the girls and returning them home and in helping the community they were stolen from.
This is all we have seen of the girls whose fate outraged the world when they were taken on the night of 14 April 2014, apart from one short video released a few weeks into their capture.They were asleep in their beds when deranged Islamist extremists with the group Boko Haram raided their school setting light to buildings and seizing all those it didn't kill or who couldn't flee fast enough.The world didn't notice until a social media campaign caught fire. #bringbackourgirls caught the attention of millions.Even America's first lady Michelle Obama became involved. Her husband sent drones, advisers and intelligence operatives.Britain and other European nations also helped.But the war against Boko Haram remains unwon.There have been many false leads but the girls remain lost.Boko Haram's name is also its mission statement.It means 'Western education is forbidden'.It is an Islamist group that has killed thousands, abducted many other young girls and slaughtered young boys.It has destroyed almost 1,000 schools and forced as many as 1,500 to close.It has been extraordinarily effective at implementing its aims in the areas it has ravaged.The Nigerian government and its international backers have been ineffective in finding the girls and returning them home and in helping the community they were stolen from.
Video: Their parents complain that they are not being kept informed about efforts to find them.
Around 30 parents and activists marched to the presidential villa in the capital Abuja to demand the government do more to return the girls.
Out of the 276 youngsters who were abducted 219 remain missing.
Some have escaped. The stories they have escaped with are chilling.
They claim girls volunteer for suicide bombing missions to escape the sexual violence and extreme hunger in the camp.
Their parents have been tortured by reports of sightings and false leads.
The missing girls' phones have reportedly been used by mysterious figures to phone their parents.
The least the authorities could have done in the wake of the outrage is rebuild Chibok school as they promised at the time.
It remains in ruins.
Standing in those ruins, primary school teacher Yabuku Nkeki told a reporter recently: "We have been begging government to open even a secondary school, a government secondary school for boys. Up till now nothing.
"Only this female school and the female school where is it?
"And really Boko Haram has achieved their aim by saying that they don't want the Western education."
It is hard not to disagree with his conclusions, a damning indictment of Nigerian authorities in the wake of this ongoing outrage.
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