Nigeria: Mother identifies daughter on video of abducted girls

A mother of one of 200 abducted Nigerian schoolgirls has identified her daughter on a video by Islamist rebels that shows the girls in captivity, a school leader told Reuters by telephone on Tuesday.

One mother watched the video on television on Monday evening and spotted her daughter among dozens of girls sitting on the ground and wearing veils, said Dumoma Mpur, chairman of the parent teachers association at Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria.

A video released by the group Monday offered the first public glimpse of what it claimed were some of the nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped a month ago. The girls’ plight has spurred a global movement to secure their freedom.

“I swear to almighty Allah, you will not see them again until you release our brothers that you have captured,” the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist network threatened, an assault rifle slung across his chest.

It is not known how many suspected Boko Haram members are detained by security forces. Hundreds were killed last month when leader Abubakar Shekau’s fighters stormed the military’s main northeastern barracks in Maiduguri, the terror group’s birthplace and the headquarters of a year-old military state of emergency to put down the 5-year-old Islamic uprising.

Agencies