Boko Haram video shows missing Chibok girls, dad says
By Stephanie Busari, CNN and Aminu Abubakar, for CNN
Updated
11:23 AM EDT, Mon August 15, 2016
Story highlights
A Boko Haram militant tells Nigeria to release jailed fighters in exchange for abducted girls
The man says at least 40 of the girls have been married off
(CNN) —
The father of one of the missing Nigerian schoolgirls abducted from Chibok two years ago has told CNN he is overjoyed to see her alive on a new video released by the terrorist group Sunday.
Yakubu Kabu confirmed to CNN that he saw his daughter speaking in the new video, which demands the release of Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the kidnapped girls.
The Nigerian government has said it is still “in touch” with Boko Haram and “working for the girls’ release,” the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture said on their official Facebook page.
PHOTO:
Youtube
One of the missing schoolgirls shown in the video.
“We are being extremely careful because the situation has been compounded by the split in the leadership of Boko Haram,” said Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information of Culture, according to the statement.
In the video a masked Boko Haram militant, holding a rifle, speaks in the Hausa language in front of a group of around 50 girls wearing headscarves.
A girl is picked out to answer questions about who she is and she gives her name as Maida Yakubu.
Yakubu is then told to pass on a message to the Nigerian government asking them to release Boko Haram fighters who are in jail.
She also pleads with the parents of the girls to intervene so that she and others can be freed by the militant group.
“We are not happy living here,” Yakubu says in the video. “I’m begging our parents to meet the government to release their people so that we can be released.”
Yakubu’s father told CNN that his daughter is also known as Dorcas Yakubu. He said: “I’m very, very happy I saw my daughter on the video and I’m very happy she’s alive. Some people has said the kidnapping is not true. Some people have said they are no more alive. Now I see her and I know she’s ok.”
Kabu added that he recognized many other girls from Chibok in the video clip.
The video, more than 11 minutes long, is addressed to the “families of the Chibok girls.”
In April 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 teenage girls from their boarding school in Chibok. Around 57 girls managed to escape, but about 200 girls remain missing. In May, one girl, Amina Ali was found alive on the edge of the Sambisa forest, which is believed to be the terrorist group’s stronghold.
In the new video, some of the girls stare blankly into the camera while others look petrified as the man reels off a series of demands, including freeing Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the abducted girls.
The video also shows what appears to be several dead and injured girls strewn across the ground. The man claims some of the girls were killed by an airstrike by Nigerian military jets.
The militant also said 40 girls have been married off.
He then issues a threat, saying the girls will never be rescued alive if the government uses force to rescue them.
It is unclear when the video was shot, but it appears to be done in a similar style to a video obtained by CNN in April 2016 and other previously released Boko Haram videos.
Sources believe the timing of this new video is no coincidence as it comes on the back of a leadership crisis within Boko Haram.
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Aid worker and photographer Fati Abubakar captures the portraits and stories of those living in Nigeria's Maiduguri -- the heart of Boko Haram territory -- in her Instagram and Facebook series, "Bits of Borno." The city is also her home town.
"The Boko Haram insurgency has left a toll on our community, and the impact has been physical, psychological and economic," she explains. "There is a lot of trauma, but there is resilience as well. With this series I want to capture the strength, struggles, joy, sadness and the human spirit as the crisis abates and people move on."
Click through the gallery to read more stories of Boko Haram's survivors
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Ibrahim —
"I don't know where my parents are. I don't know whether they died or are somewhere else after we all ran from our village. But some of my aunts are in another camp. I visit them occasionally. I live here in Kusheri (a new community that moved to Maiduguri). The Bulama (traditional leader) gave me a room. His family feeds me. I don't go to (formal) school but I have joined the other kids in the Islamic school in the neighborhood."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Sergeant Lawan —
"I was an ex-soldier living in Bama when the Boko Haram terrorists came. They burned all of my property, my animals and killed my two sons. My son had married June 15th, 2013 and he was killed 1st September, two months after his wedding. We walked to Maiduguri and have been living here for some time now, but I struggle with food, clothing and a mattress to lay my head on. I still don't have food and I have a young 10-year-old and a wife to feed."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Kellu —
"Myself, my sons, their wives, and their children ran to Maiduguri. It's 16 of us in four rooms. We've left everything behind. We don't have money anymore. Not even food. I want my sons to find jobs so the family can survive."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Bulama Mustapha —
"I am the Bulama for the compound we live in. We are about a hundred in number. Since we moved to this neighborhood from Yimimi, Konduga Local Community, we haven't received help, be it clothing, food or anything. They (NGOs) wrote our names (down) 10 weeks ago but we haven't seen them again. We sell charcoal to help pay rent. Its 1,000 Naira ($5) a room per month and the landlord has started saying there will be an increase in rent to 3,000 Naira ($15). Most of us might end up being evicted. That is what we are worried about."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Hajia —
"I come to the market at 6am and sit at my spot. I leave at 6pm. I check all of the women coming into Monday Market. We have to be strict. We have to ensure everyone passes by security checks. I'm dedicated to doing my job."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Ya Hajja —
"Boko Haram attacked our village, Malari in Konduga Local Government, and killed my son. So my friend and I found a car and came to Maiduguri. We live with my other son, but he can't feed us all the time, so we beg on the street."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Mohammed —
"I've a lot of problems with the university. It's seven of us in one room -- that's unhealthy. The water we fetch is also unhealthy. Then the mattresses we were given have all sorts of dirt on them. The toilet is terrible, it's a reservoir for infections. Lectures are 45 minutes per class because of the insurgency. Everyone wants to rush back home. We don't have even time with our tutors. And I'm a bookworm, I love studying, so that's an issue for me."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Baana Hajja —
"The Boko Haram terrorists went away with two of my siblings and my brother was shot on our way to Maiduguri. Even after finding safety here, we have lots of problems. Food, rent. We've too (many) issues. And there's not much trade. I sew caps but sometimes you can't even buy the thread because there's no money. The government and NGO food distribution is yet to reach our neighborhood."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Anonymous —
"She was so quiet it was disturbing," Abubakar recalls on meeting this anonymous subject. "I wonder what scars she came with. The mass relocation to Maiduguri during Boko Haram has brought a lot of the villagers to the town. And one wonders what they had to endure."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Fatime —
"(Boko Haram) didn't touch me because they said I was old. So they left with the other women in the town, I heard the women screaming. I didn't sleep for days. But I continued living in the neighborhood, selling groundnut. The (Boko Haram) boys used to come and buy the peanuts as they passed. Day and night I thought of ways to leave the town. Eventually I ran. It took me a week to walk from the village in Baga to Maiduguri."
Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram
PHOTO:
Fati Abubakar
Bulama —
"We used to live so peacefully with our elders, our neighbors, our families, before Boko Haram attacked our village. We had businesses and all of us were doing well, none of us had ever been idle. But then the terrorists chased us out and we ran to Maiduguri. We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. We've lost everything and almost everyone: wives, children, parents. We don't know anyone, not a lot of people help with jobs. No one gives you a dime. We just sit under the tree, sew caps and go home. Occasionally we sell one and pay rent. We just hope to sell more caps to survive because all the (borders) for other businesses are closed and the terrorists will kill you at the borders if you attempt."
Earlier this month, ISIS introduced a new Boko Haram leader named Abu Musab al-Barnawi. They believe that Boko Haram’s longtime leader, Abubakar Shekau, has released this video to assert his authority over the militant group.
Shehu Sani, a Nigerian senator, told CNN: “This is more of a show of strength to the Nigerian government and to ISIS. Shekau wants to show the country and the world that he is fully in charge and that he is the one that should be negotiated with.”
Sani, a former negotiator and mediator with Boko Haram, added that it was difficult for the Nigerian government to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the girls as “there is a lack of trust on both sides.”
Why has it taken so long?
The kidnapping has always been clouded by skepticism in Nigeria, where the parents of the missing girls have had to fend off accusations it’s actually an elaborate hoax masterminded by opposing political parties.
The stark divide between the country’s Muslim North and Christian South may also have influenced former southern Christian President Goodluck Jonathan’s seeming reluctance to act on a northern Muslim problem.
“This is a government which is not only in denial mentally, but in denial about certain obvious steps to take,” Nigerian author Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate who is often referred to as the conscience of his nation, told CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour in May 2014.
“It’s one of those rather child-like situations that if you shut your eyes, if you don’t exhibit the tactile evidence of the missing humanity here, that somehow the problem will go away,” he said.
Since President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from Daura in the north, was elected in May of last year, there has been a ramped up – if not wholly successful – crackdown on Boko Haram.
But a lack of trust between both the government and Boko Haram has added to fears that any attempt at a rescue by the military could end in fatalities.
