“Don’t you know that over 200 Chibok schoolgirls have converted to Islam?”
“If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you to convert to Islam, or to die from grief,” laughs Boko Haram’s leader in a chilling new video.
“I am telling you we have not made ceasefire with anyone. Only battle, hitting, striking, and killing with guns, is what we long for like a tasty meal,” says Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.
In the video, Shekau is surrounded by armed militants carrying the black Islamist flag and several armored vehicles. He shouts menacingly and waves around his prepared remarks, mocking anyone who fell for the “ceasefire,” or thought that Boko Haram would actually release the kidnapped schoolgirls.
“This is what we believe in and fight for,” he shouts. “Our goal is to see only Quran being followed on earth. This is our focus.”
“Don’t you know that over 200 Chibok schoolgirls have converted to Islam?” he continues. “They have now memorized two chapters of the Quran.”
“The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long ago married them off,” says Boko Haram’s leader.
In April, Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” kidnapped over 200 Nigerian school girls in Chibok. To bring attention to their plight, #BringBackOurGirls began trending on Twitter, and First Lady Michelle Obama followed suit.
The anemic response of the Obama administration did not extend beyond hashtags, and was widely mocked as “hashtag diplomacy.”
Boko Haram’s latest chilling video serves as a reminder that getting a hashtag trending on Twitter cannot, in fact, “bring back our girls.”