Father Of Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirl Has Revealed Photographs Of His Daughter

The father of a kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirl has revealed photographs of his daughter pictured before she was snatched by blood-crazed Boko Haram fanatics.

Mary was taken alongside her closest friend who lives next door to her.

Speaking to ITV News, Mary's father said he is desperate with worry and the thought of what his daughter is going through.

Five of his nieces have also been snatched by the militant group Boko Haram which is holding 276 female students.

This week it released a video showing around 100 of the girls and said they will only be freed after the government releases jailed militants.

Mary's father was shown the video in the hope he may recognise his own child or nieces.

Despite not seeing his own daughter he did recognise a girl, he believes to be around 16 or 17, who lives opposite to his family's home.

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Snatched: Mary was taken alongside her closest friend who lives next door to her

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A group shot of some of the schoolgirls before they were kidnapped by Boko Haram fanatics

He told ITV News that he did not trust the offer made by Boko Haram to release the girls in exchange for prisoners.

The group, which wants to impose Islamic law on Nigeria, has killed more than 1,500 people this year
in a campaign of bombings and massacres.

Boko Haram's kidnapping of schoolgirls at a boarding school in northeast Nigeria last month has focused international attention on the extremist group amid outrage that most of the girls have not been rescued Nigeria's government, which has repeatedly denied allegations that it was slow to respond to the mass abduction, had initially suggested there would be no negotiations with Boko Haram.

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Missing: Mary, pictured left, with her best friend who was also kidnapped by the militant group last month

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Mary's father was shown the video in the hope he may recognise his own child or nieces

Now it appears that stance may be relaxed.

Washington has sent military, law-enforcement and development experts to Nigeria to help search for the missing girls who were kidnapped by the militants from a secondary school in Chibok in remote north-eastern Nigeria on April 14.

‘We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission,’ a U.S. official said.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was also considering deploying unmanned drone aircraft to aid the search.

Optimism: Forensic analysis of the video has begun, with one expert confident that it contains clues that will help focus security services' search efforts

One of the U.S. officials told Reuters the United States had been carrying out the manned surveillance flights ‘for a few days’ but did not elaborate.

Boko Haram paraded the shell-shocked teenagers on a chilling video, in which the leader, Abubaker Shekau, chuckled and confirmed his prisoners - the vast majority of them Christians - had been forced to convert to Islam.

Forensic analysis of the video has begun, with one expert confident that it contains clues that will help focus security services' search efforts.

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Captured: The video shows the girls wearing the full-length hijab and praying in an undisclosed rural location

Chilling: The schoolgirls were paraded on video by Boko Haram

U.S experts previously determined where an Osama Bin Laden video was shot from studying the rock formations that formed the backdrop to it.

They were also able to work out exactly when it was recorded - that was done through a study of the shadows and the geometry of the area.

However, it was impossible to fully authenticate the video.

Extremist group Boko Haram seized 276 girls who were taking exams at a school in Borno's north-eastern village of Chibok on April 14

Abubakar Shekau said that the girls would never be released unless there is an exchange with prisoners

The flamboyant leader of the terror group addresses the camera, offering Nigerian authorities a deal

The girls recite Islamic prayers during the clip as they sit in a group in a wooded area

Ordeal: This girl, who was made to speak to the camera, appeared fearful

Parents were trying to turn on a generator in Chibok, hoping to watch it and identify their daughters, said a town leader, Pogu Bitrus.

‘There's an atmosphere of hope - hope that these girls are alive, whether they have been forced to convert to Islam or not,’ he told The Associated Press by telephone. ‘We want to be able to say, “These are our girls.”’

The video showed about 100 girls, indicating they may have been broken up into smaller groups as some reports have indicated.

Fifty-three girls managed to escape and 276 remain missing, police say.

Bitrus said vegetation in the video looked like the Sambisa Forest, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Chibok, where the girls were believed to have been spirited away.