It’s now been two years since 200-plus Nigerian girls were kidnapped from a school in the town of Chibok by Boko Haram jihadists. There have never been any confirmed reports about the girls’ whereabouts since the kidnapping, and it’s not clear that they’re all being held in the same place. Today, though, CNN has posted clips from a video that was given to the Nigerian government by Boko Haram as “proof of life” during negotiations over the girls’ fate—a video that was purportedly filmed just months ago. According to parents of some of the missing children who spoke to CNN, the 15 girls in the video are all among those who were taken.
From CNN:
As the two minute clip comes to an end, one of the girls, Naomi Zakaria, makes a final—apparently scripted—appeal to whoever is watching, urging the Nigerian authorities to help reunite the girls with their families.
“I am speaking on 25 December 2015, on behalf of the all the Chibok girls and we are all well,” she says, stressing the word “all.” Her intonation seems to imply that the 15 teens seen in the video have been chosen to represent the group as a whole. The date given by Naomi matches information embedded in the video, suggesting it was filmed on Christmas Day.
The government, though, says there are reasons for skepticism about the recording, and the New York Times story on the anniversary of the kidnapping does not give it as much prominence as CNN’s report. From the Times:
Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, said the government questioned whether the video was actually filmed a long time ago, arguing that the teenagers shown in it looked the same as they did two years ago.
Human Rights Watch says more than 2,400 schools in Nigeria have been closed or destroyed because of Boko Haram during its multiyear campaign of revolutionary terror.
