By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - The Boko Haram militant group has released a video Sunday purporting to show dozens of the more than 200 schoolgirls from the northern Nigerian town of Chibok abducted in April 2014
In the video, the group said the girls will only be freed in exchange for hundreds of Boko Haram fighters in detention.
“We will only release the girls in exchange for our brothers in detention in Lagos, Abuja and Maiduguri and other places,” a hooded militant said in the video fornally released on YouTube on Sunday.
The video purportedly showed dozens of the girls to corroborate claims it has custody of the hostages -- several carrying babies strapped to their backs.
The group, for the first time, announced that several of girls had been killed in raids by military fighter jets, and said the risk of more of them dying is rife if army continues its bombardment on the militants’ hideouts.
It also allegedly showed several bodies of the Chibok girls killed in airstrikes -- a narrative some analysts say should be taken with a pinch of salt since there appears to be machete wounds on some of the bodies.
One of the headscarved girls spoke briefly in the footage, appealing for their release.
One militant in the video said the group had no one currently negotiating with the Nigerian government, insisting that the group “remains cohesive and strong” contrary to claims that it has been decimated by the army.