‘proof Of Life’ Video Shows Chibok Girls Are ‘alive And Well’
BEVERLY HILLS, April 14, (THEWILL) – A new video obtained by the US news network, CNN , shows that the teenage girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists from their school in Chibok, Borno State exactly two years ago are still alive and looking well taken care of.
Noting that it obtained a video of some of the Chibok Girls which had been sent to negotiators by their captors as a “proof of life”, it added that the recording has been some members of the government, but has now been shown the parents.
While many suspects that the video was shot in the early days of the girls' kidnap, a special report by the station pointed out that the video may have been recorded in December 2015 as part of negotiations between the government and Boko Haram.
The clip shows parents identifying their daughters as CNN reports that Rifkatu Ayuba caught sight of her long-lost, desperately missed, now 17-year-old and wiled: “My Saratu!”
She reached out to a laptop screen, “the closest she's been to her child in two years”.
Saratu Ayuba is one of 15 girls seen in the recording, shown to some of the families for the first time at an emotional meeting this week.
Wearing a purple abaya, with a patterned brown scarf covering her hair, Saratu stares directly into the camera.
Desperate to pluck Saratu from the mysterious location where she is being held and bring her home, Ayuba told CNN, “I felt like removing her from the screen.
“If I could, I would have removed her from the screen.”
The video is reported to have been released by someone keen to give the girls' parents hope that some of their daughters are still alive, and to motivate the government to help release them.
The girls, their hair covered and wearing long, flowing Hijab, line up against a dirty yellow wall. They show no obvious signs of maltreatment.
As the camera focuses in on each of them, a man behind the camera fires off questions: “What's your name? Was that your name at school? Where were you taken from?”
One by one, each girl calmly states her name and explains that she was taken from Chibok Government Secondary School, according to the report.
“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”, as CNN believes her intonation seems to imply that the 15 teens seen in the video have been chosen to represent the group as a whole.
Watch the CNN video here