Boko Haram won't sell or kill abducted girls

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Nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Islamist militants could be released in exchange for jailed comrades, a former Boko Haram negotiator has reportedly said.

The group snatched the girls from their boarding school in Chibok in the lawless Borno region in the north of the country.

A former mediator of the group has told the Telegraph he believes the video, where Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatens to sell the girls as slaves, shows he plans to use them as ‘bargaining chips’ rather than kill them.

Shehu Sani says he believes that the footage, released on Monday, was an attempt to persuade the Nigerian government into a prisoner trade.

He told the newspaper: ‘From my knowledge of the group, to have him saying that he will sell them is proof that this issue can be resolved.

‘The group is most likely to want to attach some kind of conditions to the girls being released, such as the freeing of some of their own prisoners.’

In the video, the Boko Haram leader is seen dressed in combat fatigues standing in front of an armoured personnel carrier and two pick-up trucks mounted with sub-machine guns.

He then declares: 'I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah.'

Shekau then takes a swipe at democracy, Western education, efforts for Muslims and Christians to live in peace and rails against non-believers in Islam.

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