Ray of hope, as new video emerges of Chibok girls ‘alive and well’

For parents of the about 219 girls kidnapped from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state in 2014, it was tears of joy, as they came face to face with their kids, albeit through a laptop screen, who were kidnapped from them two years ago.

This is because for the last two years they had no inkling of where their children were, if they were dead or alive, as government did not offer much assurance.

A new video emerged on the CNN network purportedly sent to negotiators by their captors as a “proof of life”, showing some of the Chibok Girls.

The video had been seen by negotiators and some members of the government. But no one had shown the parents. Until now.

One of the mothers, Rifkatu Ayuba who catches sight of her long-lost, now 17-year-old wails, reaching out to a laptop screen, the closest she’s been to her child in two years. She is desperate to comfort her little girl, but helpless.

The video is believed to have been made last December as part of negotiations between the government and Boko Haram.

It was 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 robes, line up against a dirty yellow wall. They show no obvious signs of maltreatment.

Read also: Mum connives with driver, kidnaps own kids to get ransom from husband

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. Only the occasional hesitation betrays a flicker of fear and emotion.

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.

According to the reports, the Nigerian government says it has a copy of the “proof of life” video, and that it is in negotiations with those who supplied it to secure the girls’ release, but says it remains unable to confirm or reject the recording’s authenticity.

Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said there were concerns that the girls did not appear to have changed sufficiently, that they are not as different as one might expect, given the two years that have elapsed since their disappearance.

 

 

 

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