On Monday, May 5, Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group responsible for abducting 276 school girls last month, reportedly kidnapped eight additional girls.
The newly abducted girls aged from 12-15 and were taken from a Northern village in Nigeria. Immediately upon arriving, the Boko Haram jumped from their trucks and started shooting before seizing the girls, along with the tribe’s livestock and food.
“They were many, and all of them carried guns,” Lazarus Musa, a villager explained. “They came in two vehicles painted in army colour. They started shooting in our village.”
“Many people tried to run behind the mountain but when they heard gunshots, they came back,” Lazarus continued. “The Boko Haram men were entering houses, ordering people out of their houses.”
Also on Monday, the leader of Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau announced, in a 57-minute video, that he planned on selling the abducted girls on the market for marriage. He could be seen smiling with two armed guards standing next to him. “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” Shekau said while laughing. “Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions.”
It has been three weeks since the Boko Haram stormed the secondary school in the small village of Chibok. The slow process of finding the girls has led to riots and protests by citizens. Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan informed the public that they are doing everything in their power to make sure the girls are returned home safely.
“Let me reassure the parents and guardians that we will get their daughters out,” Jonathan said. He also explained that additional military units, along with aircraft units, had been deployed to help with the search.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
