Boko Haram 2014 Mass Kidnapping Update: Footage Shows 'Proof of Life'
A footage has been revealed by CNN showing some of the girls who were kidnapped two years ago in West Africa by the Boko Haram as parents of the abducted continue to push the government for answers.
15 girls were shown in the video wearing black robes. Rifkatu Ayuba recognized her daughter in the clip and shed tears as she looked at her daughter, now 17-year-old Saratu, staring blankly at the camera.
"If I could, I would have removed her from the screen," Ayuba said of her daughter. Saratu is just one of the 276 girls kidnapped by the Islamist group on April 14, 2014 in the Nigerian town of Chibok.
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The video, believed to have been created last December as part of the ongoing negotiations between the Boko Haram and the government, and is considered as a "proof of life," is also the last since May 2014 when a previous footage showed about 100 of the girls taken from their dormitory.
The two-minute clip featured the each of the girls stating their names and the school they were snatched from in the mass abduction: Chibok Government Secondary School.
In what is deemed as a scripted statement by one of the girls, Naomi Zakaria, she delivered a message that seemed to indirectly ask for help from the Nigerian government. "I am speaking on 25 December 2015, on behalf of the all the Chibok girls and we are all well."
According to BBC, hundreds of parents took part in a rally on Thursday, the abduction's second year anniversary, enduring the scorching heat to call on the current administration's attention. The parents believe that the both the previous and current administrations have failed to give enough time and efforts to reunite the teens with their families.
Intelligence officials believe Boko Haram fighters are hiding the girls somewhere inside the Sambisa Forest but despite drones flying over the area, the girls are still missing two years after the kidnapping.
According to The New York Times, a spokesman for President Mauhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu said, "Nobody knows where they are. I don't know where they are...but we are hoping if they are found in one location, they should be rescued."
