Shekau claims kidnapped Chibok girls are married now

With a malevolent
laugh, the leader of Nigeria's
Islamic extremists, tells the world
that more than 200 kidnapped
schoolgirls have all been converted
to Islam and married off, dashing
hopes for their freedom.
"If you knew the state your
daughters are in today, it might
lead some of you ... to die from
grief," Abubakar Shekau sneers,
addressing the parents of the girls
and young women kidnapped from
a remote boarding school more
than six months ago.
In a new video released late Friday
night, the Boko Haram leader also
denies there is a cease-fire with
the Nigerian government and
threatens to kill an unidentified
German hostage.
"Don't you know we are still
holding your German hostage (who
is) always crying," he taunts. "If we
want, we will hack him or
slaughter him or shoot him."
A German development worker was
kidnapped at gunpoint in Gombi in
July. Police reported he was
ambushed as he drove to work.
Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-
Walter Steinmeier last week told
reporters in Abuja that he had no
new information about a German
abductee.
In the new video, Shekau wears a
camouflage tunic and pants and
the black and white flag of al-
Qaida is by his side. He is flanked
by masked and armed fighters
standing in front of four military
pickup trucks mounted with anti-
aircraft guns.
The military has several times
claimed to have killed Shekau, and
says any new videos are made by
a look-alike. But the United States
has not removed a $7 million
ransom on the head of the
extremist leader.
On Oct. 17, military chief Air Chief
Marshal Alex Badeh, announced
that Boko Haram had agreed to an
immediate cease-fire to end a 5-
year insurgency in which
thousands have died and hundreds
of thousands have been driven
from homes in northeast Nigeria.
And government officials said they
expected the Chibok girls to be
released any day.
But Shekau denies in the video
that he has agreed to any truce
and says he is dedicated to
fighting and dying a martyr's
death to guarantee him a place in
paradise.
"You people should understand
that we only obey Allah, we tread
the path of the Prophet. We hope
to die on this path ... Our goal is
the garden of eternal bliss," he
says.
He said Boko Haram is interested
only in "battle, hitting, striking and
killing with the gun, which we look
forward to like a tasty meal," he
said.
The fighting and abductions have
continued, with Boko Haram
seizing the commercial center of
Mubi this week and fighting raging
Friday around nearby Vimtin, the
village where Badeh was born.
And the only news of the girls has
come from Shekau, who appeared
to dash hopes that they would be
released in an exchange for
detained Boko Haram fighters.
"The issue of the girls is long
forgotten because I have long ago
married them off," Shekau says
with a chortle. The extremist
fighters have ordered girls to stay
out of Western-style schools and
get married.
An earlier video in May showed
some of the kidnapped girls,
including two explaining why they
had converted to Islam.
Unconfirmed reports have indicated
the girls have been divided into
groups and that some have been
carried across borders, into
Cameroon and Chad. There also
have been reports that they were
forced to marry fighters who paid a
nominal bride price equivalent to $
12.