Society Gists

Parents of the missing Chibok girls are said to be seeing their missing daughters for the first time, two years after thier abduction in a news video said to have been sent to negotiators by their captors as a “proof of life.”

The Cable Network News (CNN) said a copy of the video which it obtained had been seen by negotiators and some members of Nigeria’s government.

“But no one had shown the parents, until now,” CNN said.

According to CNN, one of the parents, “Rifkatu Ayuba catches sight of her long-lost, desperately missed, now 17-year-old. “My Saratu!” she wails, reaching out to a laptop screen, the closest she’s been to her child in two years. She is desperate to comfort her little girl, but helpless.”

The CNN said Saratu Ayuba is one of 15 girls seen in the recording shown to some of the families for the first time at an emotional meeting this week. Wearing a purple abaya, with a patterned brown scarf covering her hair, Saratu stares directly into the camera.

“I felt like removing her from the screen. If I could, I would have removed her from the screen, CNN quoted Ayuba to have told its reporters, saying she was desperate to pluck Saratu from the mysterious location where she is being held and bring her home.

The video, according to CNN, is believed to have been made last December as part of negotiations between the government and Boko Haram.

The American news medium said it was released by someone keen to give the girls’ parents hope that some of their daughters are still alive, and to motivate the government to help release them.

While watching the video, the CNN describing the scenario, said the parents “crowded around, their eyes glued to the computer screen, three of the girls’ mothers weep and hug each other.”