A Video of Missing 219 Chibok Students Released "We are all well," Says One Girl

Boko Haram
A footage of Abu Bakr Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, posted on the Internet by the militant group. |

A video showing 15 of the 219 missing Chibok girls was recently released on CNN. The footage showed the girls in black robes. One of the girl was heard saying towards the end, "We are all well."

The video appeared to be shot in December 2015, and carried a "scripted plea" for Nigeria to negotiate with Boko Haram to secure the release of girls.

The militant group had sent the video to the government as a part of the negotiation process, where the Nigerian officials were presented with the girls' "proof of life."

About 276 girls were kidnapped from a school dormitory in the town of Chibok by Boko Haram (the name which means western education is forbidden) in April 2014. Dozens of girls managed to escape, and now only 219 remain in captivity.

The Nigerian forces fighting Boko Haram did find multiple locations where the girls were being held, but they did not rescue them for fears of endangering still others in different places or inciting retaliation against other women who were kidnapped from elsewhere in Nigeria.

"You're not just looking for 200 girls," said Gen. Carter F. Ham, the retired head of the United States military's Africa Command. "There are many, many others who have been taken hostage, and more thousands killed, and two and a half million people displaced."

The kidnapping of the girls received widespread social media coverage across the world, and the campaign #BringBackOurGirls was launched with participation from US First Lady Michelle Obama and many other celebrities.

President Muhammadu Buhari's spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu said in a statement that government is working to secure the girls and bring them back.

"The President continues to believe that with the total commitment of the Federal Government, Nigerian Armed Forces and security agencies, and the support of the international community, the girls will be eventually rescued," Shehu said.

One parent Esther Yakubu has not yet seen her daughter Dorcas who was one of the kidnapped girls, but Yakubu believes that God is with her wherever she is.

"I know that the angel of the Lord Almighty is with you, and He will continue to be with you wherever you are," Yakubu wrote in a letter addressed to her daughter, which was published on International Pathfinders Justice Initiative for Women. "But I would like to advise you, wherever you are, please be strong in the Lord and He will see you through.... The Lord is your strength, and I have that hope in me that I will see you again and I will rejoice in the Lord Almighty."

Months after the Chibok abduction, the militants had allegedly taken captive a group of 500 children from Damasak town in Borno province.

During the six years of Boko Haram insurgency, 17,000 people have been killed and two million displaced including 1.4 million children, a huge proportion of which were under the age of five, according to a UNICEF report.