Missing Nigeria Schoolgirls - NBC News Missing Nigeria Schoolgirls The kidnapping of nearly 300 girls in Nigeria by Islamist extremists Boko Haram has sparked global outrage and an online campaign, Bring Back Our Girls. Related Serah Luka told officials she had been at the boarding school in Chibok just over two months when she was captured by Islamist militants in early 2014. Photo International aid reached the island of Koulfoua in Chad this week. NBC News accompanied the multi-agency mission to assess the refugees' needs. EXCLUSIVE Exactly one year after #BringBackOurGirls became an international rallying cry, where are the kidnapped girls? And is Nigeria any safer? Video It’s been a year since 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Nigeria. As the anniversary arrives, more than 200 are still missing. SPECIAL REPORT Daniel Eyre painted a disturbing picture of the rules of conduct 'brutally enforced' by Boko Haram on men and women under its control in Nigeria. Video African officials make no secret of their desire to find and kill Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.

Video Boko Haram has rounded up hundreds of women and children and imprisoned them in a school following what appears to be the group’s deadliest attack. Photo The group's leader Abubakar Shekau released a video mocking the hashtag supported by Michelle Obama and others. Video More than two months have passed since the Islamic militant group kidnapped the girls from their school. Video U.S. military assistance to Nigeria in hunt for kidnapped schoolgirls apparently fuels terror group's leader's desire to strike back. Video First lady Michelle Obama talks about the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls and the need to push for equality for women around the world. Photo The White House plans to tell Congress that the 80 Chad to oversee drone operations in the search for the 276 abducted Nigerian schoolgirls. Video The U.S. has deployed an unmanned predator drone over eastern Nigeria to search for the missing girls. The terrorists who kidnapped the girls have reportedly split them up into small groups and scattered them throughout the jungle. Video A heat map on how #bringbackourgirls took over the globe.

Video Boko Haram Seizes Chibok: Militant Group Attacks Nigerian Town Where 276 Schoolgirls Were Kidnapped In April Boko Haram Seizes Chibok: Militant Group Attacks Nigerian Town Where 276 Schoolgirls Were Kidnapped In April 11/15/14 AT 1:08 AM Close Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist militant group, has seized control of the town of Chibok, in the north-east of the country, from which it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in April of this year. Militants attacked the town around 4 p.m. local time on Thursday. Fighters from the group destroyed communications masts, and witnesses who fled the assault described seeing bodies in the street, according to a report from The Guardian . Musa Ali, a vigilante who tried to defend Chibok, told the BBC that the militants had attacked in two groups. "You couldn't count them because there were so many," he said.

Female student stands in a burnt classroom at Maiduguri Experimental School, a private nursery, primary and secondary school burnt by the Islamist group Boko Haram to keep children away from school in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria on May 12, 2012. Boko Haram has reportedly retaken the town of Chibok in northern Nigeria, from which it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in April. Photo: Getty Images "All the security and the soldiers, they ran away and left us on our own. They didn't shoot at them, they just ran. All the ammunition we had was finished, so there was no way we could attempt to hold the area." The attack on the hugely symbolic town is another nail in the coffin of a mooted ceasefire deal, which the Nigerian government announced last month, which was to have seen the kidnapped schoolgirls released, and a cessation of hostilities between the militant group and the Nigerian army. The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau was also seen in a video earlier this month, denying that a ceasefire deal had been struck, and saying that the kidnapped schoolgirls had been “married off”. Related Stories Boko Haram Says Kidnapped Schoolgirls 'Married Off' U.S.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the United States is closely monitoring the situation in Chibok and remains committed to helping Nigeria's government, according to Voice Of America . "We condemn these attacks in Chibok, a community that has already suffered too much. Our condolences go out to the families of the victims. We remain committed to helping the government of Nigeria address the threat posed by extremist organizations," said Psaki. The abduction of the Nigerian schoolgirls sparked a world-wide social media campaign earlier this year, as well as pledges of foreign assistance to recover the kidnapped children. No discernible progress has been made in returning them to their families. Boko Haram, which translates as “Western education is forbidden,” has been fighting an insurgency against Nigeria's government since 2009, in an attempt to establish an Islamic state in the north of Nigeria. Boko Haram Kidnapped 276 Girls Two Years Ago. What Happened To Them? Boko Haram Kidnapped 276 Girls Two Years Ago. What Happened To Them?

World | Kevin Sieff, The Washington Post | Updated: April 14, 2016 18:46 IST EMAIL PRINT COMMENTS The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria is the most infamous of Boko Haram's atrocities. Nairobi, Kenya: Two years ago Thursday, just before midnight on a sweltering night in a town in northeastern Nigeria, men carrying AK-47s stormed into the Chibok Government Secondary School. What happened next would bring global attention to the Islamist group Boko Haram, which had been haunting Nigeria for years. It would unite activists around the world, including first lady Michelle Obama, around the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. It would prompt the United States to dispatch surveillance drones and military trainers to West Africa. The militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls. Several dozen of them were able to escape. But two years later, even as the Nigerian, Cameroonian and Chadian militaries have pushed Boko Haram out of many of its former strongholds, 219 of the girls remain missing. Where are they?

"I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind," Nigeria's president, Muhammadu Buhari, said earlier this year. But his efforts have not resulted in the return of any of the girls. Thousands of other Boko Haram victims have been released, recounting stories of forced marriage and sexual slavery. But not the Chibok girls. Most Nigerian and Western officials say the girls have been taken to a remote part of the Sambisa forest, a former game reserve in northeastern Nigeria, where they are being closely guarded by the militants. Here's what we know about Boko Haram's reign that might help us understand what the missing girls have endured, and what would await them if they are rescued. 1. While militants have publicly accused Nigeria's secular government of being an affront to Islam, their victims say the group's members appeared much more interested in expanding their campaign of sexual violence than governing their self-proclaimed caliphate. Many of Boko Haram's victims became pregnant while in captivity. Most experts expect that the majority of the Chibok girls have already delivered the babies of their captors.

And if they are released, like the other victims, they will likely be regarded with deep suspicion. 2. Boko Haram has leveled a number of the cities and villages that it once occupied, leaving more than 2 million people without homes. In Chibok, homes were burned to the ground. The secondary school was destroyed. The Nigerian government says it has begun rebuilding the part of the country ravaged by war: a multibillion-dollar project. But so far there is little evidence of progress. 3. Some girls abducted by Boko Haram have recently carried out suicide bombings. The number of children involved in such blasts grew tenfold, from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015, according to a report released by the U.N. children's agency on Tuesday. Many Nigerians wonder: Were the Chibok girls brainwashed by their captors? Will they be forced into becoming attackers themselves? 4. The Nigerian military's campaign to dislodge Boko Haram might not be enough to locate the girls. The army has proven itself capable of conducting offensives in cities and towns, but the Sambisa forest is another tactical challenge entirely - dense, remote and vast.

The leader of a different group, the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, has been lurking for years near the borders of Sudan, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The forces trying to find him include 100 U.S. troops. But the effort has yielded nothing. Some say that's a cautionary tale for the quest to find the Chibok girls and Boko Haram's top leadership. That top leadership, by the way, includes a number of teenage boys, according to the Nigerian military. © 2016 The Washington Post Nigeria’s Stolen Children: What You Need to Know About the 276 Abducted Schoolgirls Nigeria’s Stolen Children: What You Need to Know About the 276 Abducted Schoolgirls Nigeria’s Stolen Children: What You Need to Know About the 276 Abducted Schoolgirls Protesters marched in support of the girls kidnapped by members of Boko Haram in front of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C. on May 6, 2014.

–Reuters By Zeninjor Enwemeka May 6, 2014 Three weeks ago more than 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Chibok, Nigeria, a town in the northeastern part of the country — and 276 girls are still missing. The girls were taken in the dark of night from their dormitory when armed men burst into the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School. That was on April 15. This week, the Islamic militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. The case has sparked rallies worldwide , pushed in large part by social media with the Twitter campaign #BringBackOurGirls , and pressure is building for action to rescue the girls. Here is what you need to know about Nigeria’s stolen girls: Advertisement How did this happen? As the girls slept in their dormitory, they were awaken by gunshots. Then gunmen burst in, commanded the students to gather outside, and set the school on fire, the AP reports . "They ... started shouting, 'Allahu Akhbar,' (God is great)," [one] 16-year-old student said. "And we knew." What they knew was chilling: The men were not government soldiers at all.

They were members of the ruthless Islamic extremist group called Boko Haram. They kidnapped the entire group of girls and drove them away in pickup trucks into the dense forest. Fifty three students escaped that day. According to AP , of the girls still missing, about 20 are ill and at least two have died of snakebites. Read a harrowing first-person account of that day The AP also reports that a local government official received a warning call about the armed militants at 11 p.m. on April 14. [Official Bana Lawal] alerted the 15 soldiers guarding Chibok, he said. Then he roused sleeping residents and told them to flee into the bush and the nearby hills. The soldiers sent an SOS to the nearest barracks, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away, an hour's drive on a dirt road. No help arrived. The militants showed up hours later and the soldiers fought them, but they were outnumbered and outgunned, and later fled for their lives. The extremists then headed for the boarding school. Who is Boko Haram? Boko Haram is an Islamic extremist group in northern Nigeria, a region of the country that is predominately Muslim. Southern Nigeria is largely Christian.

According to the BBC , the group is fighting to create an Islamic state and believes it is forbidden for Muslims to take part in activities associated with Western society. Loosely translated from the local Hausa language, [Boko Haram] means "Western education is forbidden". Boko originally means fake but came to signify Western education, while haram means forbidden. The group has perpetrated various attacks and bombings in Nigeria. In 2013, the State Department designated the group a terrorist organization. According to Amnesty International , Boko Haram was responsible for the deaths of 1,500 people in the first three months of 2014 and more than half of the victims were civilians. USA Today reported that the group was responsible for 3,982 deaths so far this year. Advertisement The US government has a $7 million bounty for Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, which is $2 million more than the bounty for the Afghan Taliban’s top man, Time reported . The BBC has a thorough overview of the group: Read more about Boko Haram . Why were the girls kidnapped? There have been reports of the girls being trafficked and sold into slavery.

On Monday, the leader of Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and threatened to sell the girls. In a video , Abubakar Shekau says, “I abducted your girls’’ and ‘‘By Allah, I will sell them in the marketplace.’’ Last week, there were reports that the girls trafficked and forced to “marry’’ their captors, but it’s unclear if the video was made before or after those reports, the AP reports . In the video, Shekau also said the students "will remain slaves with us." That appears a reference to the ancient jihadi custom of enslaving women captured in a holy war, who then can be used for sex. "They are slaves and I will sell them because I have the market to sell them," he said, speaking in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria. The group also threatened to abduct more girls and attack more schools. Today, there are reports that the extremists have kidnapped eight more girls, USA Today reports . Boko Haram has targeted schools in the past, but this is the first large-scale targeting of girls, NPR reports .

"In the past, when boys have been killed at schools that have been raided, the girls have been spared, told to go home, get married and give up Western education," [NPR Africa correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton] says. Where are the missing schoolgirls? Authorities do not know where the girls are. Locals in Chibok have formed search parties to look in the nearby Sambisa Forest, which is more than 23,000 square miles, as the military says it is diligently looking for the girls, the AP reports . Have any of the girls been rescued? In this Monday April 21, 2014 file photo, four female students girls who escaped their Islamic extremist kidnappers. —Haruna Umar/ AP file photo There have been no reports of the girls being rescued. The only girls that have been reunited with their families are the ones that escaped the night of the abduction. Advertisement What is the Nigerian government doing? There had been little said by President Goodluck Jonathan until Sunday, when he made a public statement and said his administration was doing everything possible to find the girls. Jonathan said “everything must be done’’ to free the girls, the AP reports .

Jonathan said he has been asking for and getting help from the United States but that President Barack Obama has expressed concern to him about allegations of gross human rights abuses by security forces accused of summary executions and the killings in detention of thousands of people. "I said, 'Send someone to see what we are doing and assist us, give us equipment that will help us, because we need sophisticated (equipment), don't just say there is some matter of alleged abuses,'" Jonathan said, describing one of two conversations with the U.S. leader. Jonathan has created a committee to work with the local community on a strategy to free the girls. Meanwhile there has been national outrage in Nigeria as the military has failed to rescue the girls. There has also been demonstrations in major cities in Nigeria over what protestors see as the government’s slow response and insensitivity to the girls’ plight, according the AP . A leader of a protest march on Monday said Nigeria’s First Lady ordered two protesters arrested and expressed doubt there was any kidnapping, the AP reported . What else is being done about the kidnappings? International outcry is building as pressure on Nigeria mounts. In Nigeria , demonstrators have demanded action. In Washington , D.C.

New York City , London , and other major cities, rallies have been held calling for the return of the girls. The outcry has also put pressure on the international community to step in. The White House said that it is helping in the search for the missing girls and is sending a team of military and law enforcement personnel to provide intelligence expertise and hostage negotiating assistance to Nigerian investigators. According to ABC News , the FBI is also ready for a possible deployment to help with the situation. Britain has also offered to help in the rescue of the kidnapped girls. According to The Globe and Mail , British Foreign Minister William Hague offered assistance in securing the girls’ release. Boko Haram: How We Failed the Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls SHARE Afolabi Sotunde—Reuters Nigerian women demonstrate outside the parliamentary building in Abuja, the country's capital, on April 30, 2014, demanding the government to search harder for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants Boko Haram two weeks ago We were fascinated with the search for the Malaysian plane and the search for survivors on the South Korean ferry. Why wasn't the media also focused on searching for the missing girls?

Updated: May 5, 8:51 AM In a speech on national television Sunday, almost three weeks after the girls were taken, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to rescue the missing schoolgirls and bring them home to their families. On Monday, a Boko Haram leader released a video claiming responsibility, saying “I abducted your girls” and “I will sell them in the market, by Allah.” There’s nothing the media loves more than a good hunt. So for the past few months, news coverage has been dominated by the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the hunt for survivors on the South Korean ferry accident, even the hunt for the U.S.’s 2016 presidential candidates. But when Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped more than 276 Nigerian girls from their school on the night of April 14, Wolf Blitzer and his fancy graphics were nowhere to be found. Eighteen days ago, the girls were just high schoolers trying to get an education. Now they’ve been kidnapped by terrorists and likely sold into “marriages” to men in Chad and Cameroon.

Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe , who runs a shelter for girls abducted by Joseph Kony’s rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, in Uganda, says that’s just a euphemism for systematic rape. “This is not marriage,” she says. “They are being given in sex slavery. This is human trafficking. We should call evil by its name.” Sub-Saharan Africa is home to over 16% of the 29.8 million enslaved people in the world, and now these girls have likely joined their ranks. It’s atrocious that the Nigerian government has made almost no publicized effort to find the girls. Mausi Segun, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Nigeria, says that people who live near the group’s suspected camps haven’t seen any security forces searching for the students, nobody from the government has reached out to the families, and the government even lied and said that most of the girls had been returned. But the media enabled the government to sweep the whole thing under the rug by ignoring the story for weeks.

The kidnapping was mentioned for the first time on American nightly news on May 1, more than two weeks after the girls were taken, according to Andrew Tyndall, who runs the Tyndall Report analyzing TV news. NBC Nightly News ran the first story Thursday night, CBS ran a piece Friday morning, and ABC has been mum. The story never made the front page of the national edition of the New York Times. CNN has had a bit more coverage, but nothing approaching the coverage of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 370 passengers or the South Korean ferry accident that left over 300 people dead or missing . We only started paying close attention after salacious rumors surfaced that the girls were likely sold as child brides for as little as $12. That’s too little, too late. By contrast, when the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared March 8, the story was the lead story on all NBC, ABC and CBS news shows for 11 weekdays straight. But does it matter what’s on TV? Nyirumbe says global media attention is key to stopping the atrocities. “The media has the most powerful voice, the media can reverse evil if it is done correctly,” she says.

“Even these people who are doing these atrocities against humanity, once they hear the media is coming, they stop.” The irony is that by Netflix-algorithm logic, this should have been the biggest news of the past two weeks — stories about searches, schools and sexual abuse tend to capture our interest. Tyndall points out that the media tends to love stories about girls’ education in Muslim countries; just look at all the press Malala Yousafzai has gotten (she now has a publicity team to handle her public image). The girls were kidnapped by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on the night of they’d assembled to take an exam at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, in the northeastern part of the country. That’s no coincidence, because Boko Haram’s name roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden.” The group has been terrorizing Nigeria for years, capitalizing on instability fueled by economic inequality and unemployment in Africa’s largest economy. They’ve attacked villages , caused explosions at bus stations and murdered boys at a boarding school, but this is their largest attack yet, the one that should have caught the world’s attention.

Frustrated by the government’s lack of action, some of the girls’ fathers and brothers have gone looking for them, without success. It’s possible (but unlikely) that the government is doing some behind-the-scenes negotiations for the girls’ rescue, but the families are still protesting that the government isn’t doing enough to help the lost girls. The issue will be harder to ignore when representatives from other nations descend on Nigeria this week for the World Economic Forum. Nigeria just became Africa’s biggest economy, and the government wants to be associated with growth and opportunity, not terrorism and corruption. This mass kidnapping is bad optics for the narrative of a Nigeria on the rise, which is why they tried to bury the story. Segun, of Human Rights Watch, says that the government’s lie that the girls were returned was partially intended to deceive the media. “The government is concerned about its image, and a lot of what happened initially was that to stave off that interest,” she says, adding that the government pressured the school principal to back up their story, but she refused. But why did it take the press so long to catch on?

Because we have a tendency to overreport stories that affect our foreign policy (especially in India, China and the Middle East) and underreport stories that have less geopolitical relevance. There’s also the fact that most foreign bureaus have been decimated, and 20 newspapers and companies have eliminated their foreign bureaus since 1998 , which means that facts about the kidnapping were hard to come by. And it’s impossible to ignore the racial implications: when a pretty blonde girl like Hannah Anderson or Elizabeth Smart goes missing, news outlets send helicopters and reporters to the scene; but when hundreds of black girls are kidnapped in a faraway country, it barely makes the news. Now the spotlight on this case has grown, perhaps because of the impending economic forum. But it almost doesn’t matter what finally got the world’s attention because the media scrutiny came far too late. Two weeks ago the girls were taken in a caravan that moved slowly enough that some girls were able to escape. If we had paid attention then, when the girls were together and still in the country, they might have been found. Of course Boko Haram are the villains here, and the Nigerian government bears the brunt of the blame for the lack of action.

However, this tragedy is partly on us. We weren’t paying attention. We failed those girls. Let’s not do it again. The map below shows how the conversation finally exploded on Twitter. Schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 'brainwashed to fight for group' | World news | The Guardian Boko Haram Schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 'brainwashed to fight for group' Escaped captives told BBC Panorama that some of the 219 girls flog those who cannot recite Qur’an and slit throats of captured males Some of the schoolgirls who were captured by Boko Haram. Photograph: BBC Monday 29 June 2015 18.45 EDT Last modified on Monday 29 June 2015 20.38 EDT Close This article is 1 year old Some of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants last year have been brainwashed to begin fighting for the Islamist group, with many carrying out public beatings and even killings, other captives have told the BBC.

Women who claim they lived in the same camps as some of the 219 girls who were taken from their school in the town of Chibok last April told the Panorama programme televised on Monday that many are now administering punishments on behalf of Boko Haram. Those punishments include flogging young girls who were unable to recite from the Qur’an, and slitting the throats of captured men. One witness says she has seen the Chibok girls carrying guns. The claims have not been independently verified, but human rights organisation Amnesty International says their research also indicates that some girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been trained to fight. “The abduction and brutalisation of young women and girls seems to be part of the modus operandi of Boko Haram,” said Netsanet Belay, Africa director at Amnesty International. Militants abducted 276 girls from their secondary school in north-east Nigeria in April 2014, with 57 later escaping. The remaining 219 have not been seen since a video was released the following month apparently showing about 130 of them reciting from the Qur’an.

Their kidnap sparked an international outcry, with global protests held against the perceived slow response of the Nigerian government, and the hashtag #bringbackourgirls shared more than five million times. ‘Miriam’, 17, told BBC Panorama that she met some of the Chibok girls while she was held captive for six months in a Boko Haram camp, although they were kept in a separate house to the others. She said they were “brainwashed” by the Islamist militants. “They told us: ‘You women should learn from your husbands because they are giving their blood for the cause. We must also go to war for Allah.’ The ones I’ve seen are totally heartless. Even the men avoid them because they are scared,” she said. Miriam claimed that some of the Chibok girls had killed several men in her village. “They were Christian men. [The Boko Haram fighters] forced the Christians to lie down. Then the girls cut their throats.” Anna, 60, told Panorama she fled a Boko Haram camp in the Boko Haram stronghold of the Sambisa forest, where she too had seen the Chibok girls commit murder.

“People were tied and laid down and the girls took it from there. The Chibok girls slit their throats,” she said. Pinterest Anna, a former Boko Haram captive, claims some of the girls were forced to kill. Photograph: BBC Anna also claimed Boko Haram militants used the girls as teachers to administer brutal punishments. “They shared the girls out as teachers to teach different groups of women and girls to recite the Qur’an,” she said. “Young girls who couldn’t recite were being flogged by the Chibok girls.” But she said she did not blame them. “It’s not their fault they were forced to do it. Anyone who sees the Chibok girls has to feel sorry for them.” Amnesty says that at least 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since the beginning of 2014, with many targeted because they are Christians or attending school. Captives are subjected to rape, torture, forced marriage and religious conversion, according to a previous Human Rights Watch investigation . Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has previously claimed on video that the Chibok girls would be married off to Boko Haram militants.

Faith, 16, another former captive interviewed by the BBC, said she had seen at least one Chibok schoolgirl married off. Miriam explained she got married after being told that any woman who refused would have their throats cut. After, she says she was repeatedly raped, and is now pregnant. Boko Haram has killed about 5,500 civilians in north-east Nigeria during its campaign to attempt to establish an Islamic state in the region. Hundreds of women and girls have been rescued in recent months as part of a Nigerian military offensive in the Sambisa forest. One of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by terror group Boko Haram has been found, activists say - Mirror Online One of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by terror group Boko Haram has been found, activists say The girl, named as Amina Ali, is thought to have been discovered with a baby Share Click to playTap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email One of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram has been found, activist say.

If confirmed, she will be the first of the victims taken by the Nigerian terror group in 2014 to be discovered. The girl, named as Amina Ali, is thought to have been discovered with a baby Activists told the BBC she found by vigilantes on Tuesday in the Sambisa Forest, close to the border with Cameroon. She was said to have been identified by a civilian fighter who recognised her. The fighter belonged to a group set up to help fight Boko Haram called the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF). Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram shows the girls wearing the full-length hijab (Photo: Getty) Miss Ali is thought to come from the town of Mbalala, south of Chibok - home to 25 of the kidnapped girls. Her discovery has reportedly been confirmed by the chairman of the Chibok girls Parents community group. The twisted leader of terror group then offered a “barbaric” deal in a video he released parading more than 100 of the Nigerian schoolgirls he kidnapped.

Leader Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau said the girls would be converted to Islam (Photo: Getty) It is believed some of the girls, who were in their final year at the boarding school in Chibok, have been forced to marry their abductors who paid a "bride price" of £7. A video, released by the leader of an Islamic terrorist group known as Boko Haram is now taking responsibility for the abduction . A video was released apparently showing the kidnapped girls (Photo: AFP) The remains of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok (Photo: Getty) The leader of the Nigerian group, Imam Abubakar Shekau, says the girls are slaves, who will be sold and married off. In subtitled versions of the video Abubakar Shekau said: "Let me tell you. I took the girls. Girls: go and get married. "There is a market for selling girls. Video Loading Share this video Watch Next "In every nation, in every region there is a decision to make. Either you are with us. I mean the real Muslims, who are following Salafism.

"Or you are with the Obama, Francois Hollange, George Bush, Clinton and I have not forgotten Abraham Lincoln." Boko Haram is a militant Islamist group in Nigeria, who has caused chaos in the country as they fight to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state. Read more: Suspected Boko Haram terrorists kidnap more than 100 Their official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad". The name Boko Haram, roughly translated means "Western education is sinful" and is a name given to the group by locals in the city of Maiduguri. This is where the group has its headquarters, less than two hours from Chibok where the girls were kidnaped. Like us on Facebook Nigeria: First missing Chibok girl found - CNN.com 1 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest Boko Haram's violent footprint is evident across the vast expanse of Nigeria's northeast, where village after village has been left devastated by the group's fighters.

Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest What Boko Haram couldn't loot, it burned to the ground. To this day, people remain afraid to return home. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest Frequent attacks from Islamic insurgents have prompted residents to flee their villages and head to Maidugiri where it is, to an extent, safer. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest The city of Maidugiri is at the heart of the military's campaign. Something of a safe haven for many fleeing Boko Haram, it has become an oasis in northeastern Nigeria, where around 2.5 million displaced people now reside. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest The region's soft sand is ideal for hiding improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. This means the military must travel in heavily armored convoys with mine-proof trucks providing protection from the front.

Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest Empty ammunition cases litter the ground, untouched since they flew from the machine guns used in a skirmish between the Nigerian army and Boko Haram fighters. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest The operation's "theater commander" Maj. Gen. Leo Irabor tells CNN that while he is proud of his men's achievements in pushing back Boko Haram, they are in need of more international support to quash the insurgents. Hide Caption Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest A vehicle full of troops scans the horizon scouting for any indication of insurgent presence. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Penetrating Boko Haram's stronghold: The Sambisa Forest The terrain in the northeast is unforgiving and troops face dehydration in the blistering heat while on patrol.

Hide Caption Western Governments KNEW whereabouts of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram | Daily Mail Online Share this article Share Dr Pocock said: 'A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment.' He said the girls were there for at least four weeks but authorities were 'powerless' to intervene - and the Nigerian government did not ask for help anyway. He said: 'A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed, an air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.' Dr Andrew Pocock (pictured left) the former British high commissioner to Nigeria said a large group of the missing girls were spotted by British and American surveillance officials shortly after their disappearance He added: 'You might have rescued a few but many would have been killed.

My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don't.' In an investigation by Christina Lamb for the Sunday Times Magazine, Dr Pocock said the information was passed to the Nigerians but they made no request for help. The Magazine has also seen brutal rape videos which show schoolgirls are being used as sex slaves by the terrorists. Ms Lamb reports: 'They film schoolgirls being raped over and over again until their scream become silent Os.' Some of the girls who managed to escape told Ms Lamb they were kept in 'women's prisons' where they were taught about Islam. Boko Haram fighters would visit and pick their wives. The girls were powerless to resist as even then the men would be heavily armed. They were shown videos of people being raped, tortured and killed as a threat of what would happen to them if they tried to run away.

Dr Stephen Davis, a former canon at Coventy Cathedral who has spent several years attempting to negotiate with the terror group said Boko Haram 'make Isis look like playtime' and said it is 'beyond belief' that the authorities both in Nigeria and the West do not know where the schoolgirls are. He insists the locations of the camps where the girls are being kept are well known and can even be seen on Google maps. He added: 'How many girls have to be raped and abducted before the West will do anything?' Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau previously claimed that all the girls, some of whom were Christian, had converted to Islam and been 'married off'. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau (pictured) previously claimed that all the girls, some of whom were Christian, had converted to Islam and been 'married off' The mass abduction brought the brutality of the Islamist insurgency to worldwide attention and prompted the viral social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls which was supported by everyone from Michelle Obama to Malala Yousafzai. Boko Haram violence has left at least 17,000 dead and forced more than 2.6 million from their homes since 2009.

The Global Terrorism Index ranks the group as the word's deadliest terror organisation. The group, now officially allied to the Islamic State fighters who control much of Iraq and Syria, has responded with suicide bombings and hit and run attacks against civilians. In recent months the insurgents have turned away from direct confrontation with the military in favour of suicide attacks, increasingly carried out by women and girls - raising fears that they are kidnap victims, The mass abduction brought the brutality of the Islamist insurgency to worldwide attention and prompted the viral social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls Just last week two female suicide bombers killed at least 24 worshippers and wounded 18 in an attack during dawn prayers Wednesday on a mosque on the outskirts of the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, officials said from the birthplace of Boko Haram. One bomber blew up inside the mosque and the second waited outside to detonate as survivors tried to escape, said coordinator Abba Aji of the civilian self-defense Vigilante Group. The mosque is on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the city that is the military command center of the war against Boko Haram. Several suicide bombers have exploded recently at roadblocks leading into the city, preventing attackers from reaching crowded areas.

Read more: Africa , Boko Haram , Nigeria A new video has emerged showing some of the missing schoolgirls kidnapped by the armed group Boko Haram in Nigeria two years ago , providing hope to parents that their daughters are still alive. About 15 girls featured in the video obtained by the Nigerian government, saying they were from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and pleading with the government to cooperate with Boko Haram on their release. Boko Haram fighters abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014, with 57 pupils managing to escape but 219 still missing. Nigeria girls worry about abducted classmates Various false leads have raised hopes of finding the girls but their whereabouts remain unknown. Rifkatu Ayuba and Mary Ishaya said they recognised their daughters in the video, while a third mother, Yana Galang, identified five of the missing girls. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said the video shows 15 girls huddled in a group against a wall.

"There's a voice-over, there's a man speaking asking them to state their names and other details, including the date that the video was taken, and they say it's the 25th of December 2015." Ndege added, however, that Nigerian authorities are treating the video with "extreme caution". "They are treating it seriously, they don't want to underplay its significance but they're saying 'let's be careful, let's tread with caution,'" Ndege said. "The campaigners and the families, however are holding on to this as the glimmer of hope that they’ve been looking for the last two years and they are urging the Nigerian government to follow up in every way possible the authenticity of this new recording." Local officials said more identifications were needed. "The girls were looking very, very well," Galang said in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation after viewing the video at a screening organised by local officials in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in northeast Nigeria. She said: "They were definitely our daughters ... all we want is for the government to bring back our girls." The three mothers were invited to the viewing by the chairman of Chibok local government area.

READ MORE: Nigeria ready to talk to Boko Haram about missing girls Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from Chibok, said that not much had changed in the area two years on and the relatives were not confident of seeing the girls back home soon. "We met a woman who said she didn't see her daughter in the video but saw her niece," he said. "All these wranglings and delays meant she wasn't confident the girls would be home any time soon. The thing they are hanging on to is hope and prayers that somebody somewhere will do something to get these girls back home. "The mood in the town is that of resignation, anger and frustration." The kidnapping of the girls has become a political issue in Nigeria, with the government and military criticised for their handling of the incident and failure to track down the girls. Lack of progress The government blames the previous administration for lack of progress, while activists are asking for Western countries to help with the investigation. No member of Boko Haram was visible in the video and local officials were not immediately available to give details on how they received the video.

About 2,000 girls and boys have been abducted by Boko Haram since 2014, with many used as sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers, according to Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organisation. International activists have pressed for the missing girls' release [AP] Source: Al Jazeera and agencies Produced by: faras ghani Tell us what you think Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions . MORE FROM AL JAZEERA

Question: In what country were 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram?
Answer: Nigeria