Abuja - 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 PTA at Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, north-eastern Nigeria.
The leader of Boko Haram offered to release the girls abducted by his fighters last month in exchange for the group’s members being held in detention, according to a video posted on YouTube on Monday.
The search for the girls intensified as a senior US administration official said the United States deployed manned surveillance aircraft over Nigeria and was sharing satellite imagery with the Nigerian government.
About 100 girls wearing full veils and praying are shown in an undisclosed location in a part of the 17-minute video in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks.
Boko Haram militants, who are fighting for an Islamist state, stormed a secondary school in the north-eastern village of Chibok on April 14 and seized 276 girls who were taking exams. Some have managed to escape, but about 200 remain missing. - Reuters