(CNN) -- Fears for the fate of more than 200
Nigerian girls turned even more nightmarish Monday when the leader of
the Islamist militant group that kidnapped them announced plans to sell
them.
"I abducted your girls. I
will sell them in the market, by Allah," a man claiming to be Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained by Agence
France-Presse.
"There is a market for
selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will
sell women. I sell women," he continued, according to a CNN translation
from the local Hausa language.
Boko Haram is a terrorist
group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to U.S. officials. Its name means "Western education is sin." In his nearly
hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education
to end.
"Girls, you should go and get married," he said.
The outrageous threat
means the girls' parents' worst fears could be realized. Parents have
avoided speaking to the media for fear their daughters may be singled
out for reprisals.
"Wherever these girls are, we'll get them out," Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed Sunday.
But he also criticized
the girls' parents, saying they weren't cooperating fully with police.
"What we request is maximum cooperation from the guardians and the
parents of these girls. Because up to this time, they have not been able
to come clearly, to give the police clear identity of the girls that
have yet to return," he said.
Weeks after the girls'
April 14 kidnapping, Africa's most populous country seems to be no
closer to finding them, triggering complaints of ineptitude -- some of
which is expressed on Twitter with the globally trending hashtag
#BringBackOurGirls.
On Sunday, about 100
demonstrators gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission in London,
chanting, "Bring them back!" and "Not for sale!"
Crowds from Los Angeles to London rallied Saturday as well.
"Access to education is a
basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls,"
former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote Sunday on Twitter.
"We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls."
According to accounts,
armed members of Boko Haram overwhelmed security guards at a school last
month, pulled the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The
convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering
Cameroon.
On Friday, Nigerian
authorities updated the number of girls kidnapped to 276. At least 53 of
the girls escaped, leaving 223 in the hands of their captors, police
said.
Authorities said the number of missing girls could grow as police fill in spotty school enrollment records.
Families had sent their
girls to the rural school in Chibok for a desperately needed education.
The northeastern town is part of Borno state, where 72% of primary-age
children never attended school, according to the U.S. Embassy in
Nigeria.
It's even worse for
girls than boys. "In the North particularly, the gender gap remains
particularly wide and the proportion of girls to boys in school ranges
from 1 girl to 2 boys to 1 to 3 in some states," UNICEF says.
Twelve northern states follow Sharia law.
In recent years, Boko
Haram has carried out dozens of attacks, killing thousands of people at
schools, churches, police stations, government buildings and elsewhere.
Targets include Christians, senior Islamic figures critical of Boko
Haram and people the group believes are engaged in "un-Islamic"
behavior, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says.
Boko Haram has gained
training in weapons and communications from al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in recent years. This
helped it move from little-noticed attacks to more spectacular ones,
including against Western targets and the Nigerian government, which it
seeks to overthrow, U.S. authorities say. In 2011, it carried out an
attack with IEDs on the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
Though Nigeria has
Africa's largest economy, driven largely by oil, poverty remains
widespread: Nearly 62% of the country's nearly 170 million people live
in extreme poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook.
That dichotomy takes
center stage this week as a World Economic Forum meeting convenes
Wednesday in Nigeria's capital of Abuja. The country "already plays a
crucial role in advancing the continent's growth; yet it is also
emblematic of the challenges of converting natural wealth into solutions
that address persistent social challenges," the World Economic Forum on
Africa says on its website.
The United States is
sharing intelligence with Nigeria to help in the search, according to a
U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation.
"We are sharing
intelligence that may be relevant to this situation. You are going to
see a focus on this in all three channels of government: diplomatic,
intelligence and military," the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
The scale of the attack
is worrisome because it shows the "brazen" lengths Boko Haram will go to
and suggests a planning and logistics capability for a large-scale
operation, the official said. It's not the first time the group has
attacked defenseless schoolchildren.
Last week, Attorney
General Eric Holder asked U.S. intelligence agencies to prepare a report
for him on the kidnapping, as well as an assessment of Boko Haram,
according to a U.S. law enforcement official. The assessment could help
the Department of Justice seek indictments or curtail funding sources
for the group. The FBI had several ongoing investigations into Boko
Haram leadership.
The U.S. military is not
planning to send troops but will assist with intelligence-sharing and
perhaps could help Nigerian forces plan a rescue mission, under existing
military cooperation agreements, a second U.S. official with knowledge
of the situation said.
The United States could
offer satellite imagery and electronic intelligence such as
communications intercepts. U.S. Africa Command has long been helping
Nigerian forces improve their training and operations to counter Boko
Haram militants.
President Obama is being
briefed on the attack, and pressure is mounting worldwide for the
Nigerian government to act. Speaking during a visit to Africa, U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States "will do everything
possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women
to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice."
CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report
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