Boko Haram releases new video showing kidnapped Chibok girls

Some 50 girls wearing headscarves are seen behind a Boko Haram militant who demands the release of fighters in return for freeing the girls.

The militant also says some of the girls have been killed in air strikes.

The group seized 276 final-year girls from a school in the northern town in April 2014.

It is believed to still be holding more than 200 of those kidnapped.

Non-Muslims were forcibly converted to Islam, and it is feared that many of the schoolgirls have been sexually abused and forced into "marriage" by their captors.

A leading member of the Bring Back Our Girls movement which campaigns for their release told BBC News after watching the video that she was terrified by what she had seen.

"Everybody should be disturbed by the conditions of the girls," Aisha Yesufu said.

'Forty married'

The video begins with a shot of a masked man, carrying a gun, speaking to the camera. He says that some of the girls have been wounded and have life-threatening injuries, and that 40 have been "married".

Speaking in the Hausa language, the gunman says the girls on display will "never" be returned if the government does not release Boko Haram fighters who have been "in detention for ages".

The video concludes with footage of bodies, said to be the victims of air strikes, lying on the ground at another location.

The militant also carries out a staged interview with one of the captives, who calls herself Maida Yakubu, in which she asks parents to appeal to the government.

Maida's mother, Esther, is one of several parents of Chibok girls who recently published open letters to their daughters detailing the pain they feel at their children's absence and their hopes for the future.

BBC