Fears for the fate of more than 200
Nigerian girls turned even more nightmarish Monday when the leader of the
Islamist militant group that kidnapped them announced plans to sell them.
"I
abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," a man
claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained
by Agence France-Presse.
"There
is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to
sell. I will sell women. I sell women," he continued, according to a CNN
translation from the local Hausa language.
Boko
Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates,
according to U.S. officials. Its name means "Western education is
sin." In his nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for
Western education to end.
Girls,
you should go and get married," he said.The outrageous threat means the
girls' parents' worst fears could be realized. Parents have avoided speaking to
the media for fear their daughters may be singled out for reprisals.
U.S.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the video "does appear
legitimate."
The tape
won't intimidate or deter Nigeria from efforts to save the kidnapped girls, the
Nigerian government said.
"It
is disheartening that someone would make such a terrible boast," Doyin
Okupe, spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, said in an interview with
CNN.
"It
is to be expected of terrorists," he added. "No group can affect our resolve.
We will see this through to the end. We have the commitment and capacity to get
this done. No matter what this takes, we will get these girls."
On
Sunday, Jonathan vowed,
"Wherever these girls are, we'll get them out."
But he
also criticized the girls' parents, saying they weren't cooperating fully with
police.
"What
we request is maximum cooperation from the guardians and the parents of these
girls. Because up to this time, they have not been able to come clearly, to
give the police clear identity of the girls that have yet to return," he
said.
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