Boko Haram send ‘proof of life’ video showing Chibok schoolgirls, two years after mass kidnapping: CNN

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A CNN image from a “proof of life” video showing some of the Chibok schoolgirls, seized by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria two years ago. Photo: CNN

Published: 1:15pm, 14 Apr 2016Updated: 12:39pm, 16 Apr 2016

Boko Haram Islamist fighters have sent a “proof of life” video which shows 15 of the more than 200 girls abducted by Islamist fighters from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok two years ago, CNN reported on Wednesday.

The video showed the girls wearing hijabs in an unspecified location, stating their names, that they were taken from Chibok and the date of the recording - December 25, 2015, the broadcaster said.

CNN showed two mothers who recognised their daughters on the video but another broke down as hers was not there.

All three mothers, however, were able to identify 15 girls, as did a classmate, who was at home on April 14, 2014, when 219 schoolgirls were seized.

The video is the first concrete indication that at least some the girls are still alive since a previous video released publicly by Boko Haram in May 2014.

Then, about 100 of the teenagers were shown in Islamic dress, reciting passages from the Koran after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said they had converted to Islam.

Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed told CNN the girls in the video appeared “under no stress whatsoever” and there had been “little transformation in their physical appearance”.