LAGOS, Nigeria—A schoolmate says she cried with joy when she saw a Boko Haram video appearing to show some of Nigeria’s kidnapped Chibok girls, with images of tearful mothers recognizing their daughters who have not been heard from since the mass abduction by the Islamic extremists two years ago.
“The moment I saw them and recognized their faces—Saratu Ayuba, Jummai Mutah, and Kwazigu Hamman—I started crying, with tears of joy rolling down from my eyes, thanking God for their lives,” she says.
The young woman, who now calls herself Saa and is going to college in the United States, was among several dozen who escaped, jumping down from the back of an open truck after Boko Haram had kidnapped them. The extremists seized 276 girls who had gathered for science exams at the Government Girls Secondary School in the northeast town of Chibok. There are 219 missing.
Saa spoke in a statement through the Education Must Continue Initiative, a Washington-based project started by Nigerian Emmanuel Ogede, which is sponsoring the education of Saa and nine other students who escaped.
“Seeing them gives me the courage to tell the world today that we should not lose hope,” Saa said. “Let’s keep praying and campaigning for #BringBackOurGirls. I want the world to raise their voice. Let’s not stop until the government hears us and does something about it.”
CNN on Wednesday aired the video, believed made in December, of girls wearing the Islamic hijab, and of one mother reaching out to a computer screen as she recognizes her daughter.
“My Saratu,” she wails, before breaking down in sobs. She says Saratu was 15 when she was kidnapped and now is 17.
