A new video from Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorists shows about 100 girls in Muslim hijabs and reciting the Koran — and the leader of the kidnappers apparently offering to trade them for his captured comrades.
Boko Haram’s fanatical leader, Abubakar Shekau, claimed the barefoot, grim-faced girls sitting outdoors in 27-minute video were some of the roughly 276 schoolgirls kidnapped from their school one month ago.
“These girls, you occupy yourselves with their affair. We have indeed liberated them. We have indeed liberated them. Do you know we have liberated them? These girls have become Muslims. They are Muslims!” the camouflage-clad Shekau boasted, gesturing with his right arm, laughing and holding an automatic rifle.
He then turned serious as he seemed to offer to exchange the girls – who chanted “Praise be to Allah, the lord of the world,” in Arabic – for Boko Haram prisoners captured by the Nigerian government.
“It is now four years, five years that you arrested our brethren, and they are still in your prison. And now you’re talking about these girls? We will never release them until after you release our brethren,” he said, pointing a hand at the camera.
Shekau taunted the international community for the uproar over the April 14 abductions from the northern town of Chibok.
“Just because we kidnapped these young girls, you are making noise? Allah has blessed most of them with accepting Islam. You are making so much noise about Chibok, Chibok, Chibok,” he said, speaking in Arabic and Hausa, the local language.
The abductions triggered a worldwide support campaign using the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
He also repeated his bizarre claim that abductions are sanctioned under his twisted interpretation of Islamic law.
“There are many verses in the Koran that allows the seizing of slaves. Abduction of slaves is allowed. It exists, it exists, yes, it exists,” he said.
“Those who have not accepted Islam will be treated as the Prophet [Mohammed] treated infidels and they will stay with us,” he said, suggesting they would be sold or used as slaves or forced to marry.
In the video, – first obtained by Agence France-Presse – some of the teen girls appear fearful and others in shock as two are called to the front and questioned in front of the camera.
“Why have you become a Muslim?” a man asked one of the girls, who were all wearing full-length, black or grey hijabs.
“The reason why I became a Muslim is because the path we are on is not the right path,” the girl said nervously, her eyes darting to the side. “We should enter the right path so that Allah will be happy with us.” The other denied they had been mistreated.
US officials are scrutinizing the video.
“Our intelligence experts are combing through every detail of the video for clues that might help in ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday.
Psaki also dismissed Shekau’s demand, saying “the United States’ policy is to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts – including ransoms or concessions.”
Nigerian reaction to the offer was mixed, with Mike Omeri, director of the National Orientation Agency, saying “it is necessary that we use whatever kind of action to get our girls out of captivity.”
But Interior Minister Abba Moro said the government would reject the deal.
A father of a missing girl also said he did not want the government to accept the offer. “It’s not right,” he told Sky News. “They’ll do it again.”
In Chibok, parents turned on a generator to watch the video and identify their daughters, said Pogu Bitrus, one of the town’s leaders.
“There’s an atmosphere of hope, hope that these girls are alive, whether they have been forced to convert to Islam or not,” he said, adding that the video appeared to be taken in the dense Sambisa Forest, about 19 miles from Chibok and 600 from the Nigerian capital.
Meanwhile, Nigeria ramped up its belated rescue effort, deploying two army divisions to hunt for the girls.
Several nations including the US, Britain, Israel, China and France have offered help or sent experts – though the US has made it clear sending troops is not on the table.
The US contingent of 30 includes 17 Defense Department advisors, five State Department officials, four FBI negotiations experts and four other communication and security experts.