Boko Haram leader offers prisoner exchange for girls

A screengrab taken yesterday from a video released by Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram obtained by AFP shows girls wearing the full-length hijab holding a flag reading "There is no god, but Allah" at an undisclosed rural location. Boko Haram released a new video on claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. Photo: AFP

Boko Haram has released a video claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging the teenagers had converted to Islam and warning that they would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed.
In the 17-minute film, about 130 girls wearing full veils can be seen praying in an undisclosed location. Sitting on scrubland near trees, reciting the first chapter of the Qu'ran and holding their palms upwards in prayer, two girls say they were Christian but had converted.
A total of 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram on 14 April from the north-eastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, which has a sizeable Christian community. Some 223 are still missing.
In the video, the leader of the Islamist group, Abubakar Shekau, said he would release the girls in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners.
Speaking in Hausa and Arabic, Shekau restates his claim of responsibility made in a video released last Monday: "These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with … we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims."
Speaking about his terms to end the kidnapping, he said: "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.