Nigeria's Chibok girls 'seen with Boko Haram in Gwoza'

More than 50 of the girls abducted by militant
Islamists in Nigeria last year were seen alive
three weeks ago, a woman has told the BBC.

  She saw the girls in the north-eastern Gwoza
town before the Boko Haram militants were
driven out of there by regional forces.
Boko Haram sparked global outrage when it
seized more than 219 girls from Chibok town a
year ago.
The US, China and other foreign powers promised
to help find the girls.
However, the girls have never been traced, and
little has been heard of them since they were
taken from their boarding school.
The whereabouts of the remaining girls is not
clear.
'Big house'
Campaign group Bring Back Our Girls organised a
silent march in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, on
Wednesday to raise public awareness about the
abductions.
  In an open letter, Nobel Peace Prize winner
Malala Yousafzai called on Nigeria's authorities
and the international community to do more to
secure the release of the girls.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has said the
girls have been converted to Islam and married
off, fuelling concern that the militants had treated
them as war booty and sex-slaves.
Mr Shekau has pledged allegiance to the Islamic
State (IS), which is also notorious for carrying
out abductions in Iraq and Syria.
  The Nigerian woman, who lived under Boko
Haram's rule in Gwoza, told the BBC she saw the
girls in Islamic attire, being escorted by the
militants.
"They said they were Chibok girls kept in a big
house," said the woman, who asked not to be
identified for fear of reprisals.
"We just happened to be on the same road with
them," she added.
'Treated better'
Three other women also told the BBC they had
seen the girls in Gwoza.
  Boko Haram was believed to have turned Gwoza
into its headquarters after it captured the town in
August 2014.
Nigeria's military, backed by troops from
neighbouring countries, recaptured the town last
month.
The militants were suspected to have fled to the
nearby Mandara Mountains, near the border with
Cameroon.
It is unclear whether the girls are with them
there.
Another woman told the BBC she last saw some
of the girls in November at a Boko Haram camp
in Bita village, also in the north-east.
"About a week after they were brought to the
camp, one of us peeked through a window and
asked: 'Are you really the Chibok girls?' and they
said: 'Yes'. We believed them and didn't ask them
again," the woman said.
"They took Koranic lessons, cleaned their
compound, cooked for themselves and they
braided each others' hair. They were treated
differently - their food [was] better and water
clean. "
Nigeria's outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan
has been widely criticised for not doing enough to
end the six-year insurgency in the north-east, and
to secure the freedom of the girls.
Incoming President Muhammadu Buhari has
vowed to "crush" the insurgents.
He is due to be inaugurated on 29 May after
defeating Mr Jonathan in last month's
presidential elections.