British Newspaper Hear Tape Of Desperate Pleas From Kidnapped Nigerian Pupils Held In Jungle With One Saying ‘I Never Expected To Suffer Like This So Much In My Life’

Boko Haram Leader Shekau 

A heartbreaking new video of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamic extremists shows them bravely speaking out about their ordeal for the first time.

The footage, not released publicly but seen by The Mail On Sunday  was taken in a jungle clearing a month after their abduction.

 The girls in the video look healthy, but it is understood that fraught negotiations are under way to broker the release several pupils who have fallen ill, including one with a broken wrist.

In the video, eight girls, dressed in their home-made school uniforms of pale blue gingham, plead for release as they stand courageously in front of the camera. They are clearly scared, upset and trying to be brave.

Each of them walks in turn to a spot in front of a white sheet fixed to a crude frame between the trees.

Four of them can be heard clearly, in their Hausa language, stating that they were taken by force and that they are hungry. A tall girl, aged about 18, says tearfully: ‘My family will be so worried.’

Another, speaking softly, says: ‘I never expected to suffer like this in my life.’ A third says: ‘They have taken us away by force.’ The fourth girl complains: ‘We are not getting enough food.’

The video, taken by an intermediary, Ahmed Sakida  on May 19, has been shown to President Goodluck Jonathan. It was intended to serve as ‘proof of life’ for the girls and to encourage the President to accede to the terrorists’ demands.

Two earlier videos showed the girls seated on the ground, dressed in hijabs, reciting the Koran, and Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declaring he would sell them into slavery, or marry them off to their kidnappers, if members of his sect were not released from prison.

Pressure from the international community and criticism of the President’s slow response to the kidnapping have led to a series of contradictory pronouncements from his government. Ministers have declared they will not negotiate with Boko Haram, or consider the release of prisoners, while official spokesmen have said ‘the window is always open for dialogue’.