Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) — Who are the girls in that Boko Haram video?
The local governor says they’re all from the Chibok boarding school raided by Boko Haram militants April 14. But some relatives say they don’t see their daughters in the video, and believe some of the girls were taken in earlier abductions.
Borno Gov. Kashim Shettima said relatives have identified 54 of the girls shown in the video released Monday by Agence France-Presse, a French news agency. Shettima said he met with families of the kidnapped girls earlier Tuesday in Borno state’s capital, Maiduguri, at which time the families identified some of their girls.
He said the others also attended the school, but he did not explain how he knew that.
CNN has not yet received confirmation from any parents that their daughters were among the girls shown in the video.
Some relatives also told CNN that more than 50 parents of girls abducted last month watched the videos in the Mbalala district and also in Chibok, and didn’t see any of their daughters in the crowd.
That’s not necessarily surprising — the video shows about 100 girls, not the full 276 abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram.
But the relatives interviewed by CNN — an uncle of one of the girls who escaped and the parents of two missing girls — said they believe the video also shows some girls abducted as much as two years ago.
The confusion is significant because the video had been hailed as proof that at least some girls in the Chibok abduction — the object of international search efforts — were alive and well. Such proof would be a crucial part of any possible negotiations that could lead to the release of the girls.
“I think we’ve got to be realistic,” CNN analyst Frances Townsend said Tuesday on “New Day.” “Even in a negotiation, because of the large number of captives, you are unlikely to return all approximately 300 girls to their families and reunite them healthy, safe and well.”
