Posted: 07/17/2014 at 7:08am | IP Logged

Boko Haram Leader Mocks #BringBackOurGirls

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CBN News

Boko Haram, the Nigeria terrorist group that's holding scores of young girls, many of whom are Christians, has just released a new video bragging about recent bombings in the African nation.

Boko Haram, which has waged a bloody insurgency against Nigerian forces for several years, took responsibility for three bombings last month in Abuja.

"I am the one that led the attack on the military base and killed the soldiers' commander," the group's spiritual leader Abubakar Shekau said in the 16-minute video obtained by AFP.

Shekau pledged support for Islamic State, the radical Muslim terrorist army waging a brutal battle in Iraq and Syria.

The video shows Shekau praising al Qaeda and the Taliban, saying "May Allah protect you," and calls leaders of the groups his "brethren."

Shekau also made fun of the social media campaign 'Bring Back Our Girls,' which highlighted the plight of the more than 200 young women abducted April 15 by Boko Haram from a school in northeast Nigeria.

Shekau said the girls will only be released if the government freed dozens of his fighters held in Nigerian prisons.

"I am working for God. Nigerians are saying 'bring back our girls,' and we are telling President Goodluck Jonathan to bring back our arrested warriors, our army," Shekau said.

Western diplomats are raising serious doubts on whether the girls can ever be rescued despite the huge international attention on the case.

Meanwhile, Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistan girl who was shot by the Taliban and survived, is in the Nigerian capital to lend her support for the kidnapped girls.

"We express our solidarity with you and we are with you. We are standing up with you in your campaign of 'Bring Back Our Girls,' bring back our daughters," Yousafzai said.

Yousafzai, accompanied by her father, met with relatives of the Nigerian schoolgirls.

"You are really brave parents, really brave parents who have taken the step to speak up for their daughters and to speak up for the right of education, and I'm hopeful that the government would listen to your voice and they would listen to what you are saying. You just want your daughters back. You just want your girls back," she said.