#BrinBackOurGirls: Boko Haram Releases New Video Showing Abducted School Girls [Statement]

According to reports from AIT and Sahara Reporters, Boko Haram sect leader, Abubakar Shekau has released another video showing  abducted school girls in Nigeria.

The newly released video, exclusively obtained by French news agency, AFP, shows hundreds of the school girls huddled together purportedly praying after they were converted to Islam by the sect.

All the girls wore the Islamic Hijab dress covering their entire body.

The release of the video follows a revelation yesterday by the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima that the girls had been sighted somewhere in Nigeria.
The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said they would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed and that the girls had converted to Islam.

Boko Haram's comments showed signs that the group were willing to negotiate. Three of the girls are shown speaking in the 17-minute video, obtained by French news agency AFP, wearing the full-length hijab. Two girls say they were Christian and have converted to Islam, while the other says she is Muslim.

Speaking in Hausa and Arabic, The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau restates his claim of responsibility made in a video released last Monday and said the girls had converted to Islam.

"These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with... we have indeed liberated them. We have indeed liberated them. Do you know we have liberated them? These girls have become Muslims," he said.

The militant leader said that Boko Haram's brothers in arms had been held in prison for up to five years and suggested that the girls would be released if the fighters were freed.

"We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren. Here I mean those girls who have not submitted (converted to Islam)," he added.