Abducted Nigerian schoolgirls 'seen alive three weeks ago'

More than 50 of the girls abducted last year by Boko Haram militants were seen alive three weeks ago, a woman has told the BBC.

Abducted Chibok Girls

Video of the 219 girls captured from the boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria in April 2014. (YouTube screen shot)

A woman has told the BBC that she saw more than 50 of the Chibok girls abducted last year by Boko Haram militants three weeks ago in the north-eastern town of Gwoza. 

"They said they were Chibok girls kept in a big house," the woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, told the BBC.

"We just happened to be on the same road with them," she added.

219 girls were abducted from a boarding school in the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014. Video of the girls dressed in veils, surrounded by Boko Haram militants, was released one month later. But since then little has been known of their whereabouts.

Another witness, a Nigerian woman, says she saw some of the girls in a Boko Haram camp in November last year.

The woman told the BBC that the girls were wearing Islamic dress and being escorted by the militants.

"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 told the BBC.

The militants are thought to have fled to nearby mountains near the border with Cameroon. It's unclear if the girls were taken with them.

The abduction of the girls in April 2014 sparked international outrage.

Nigeria's outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan has been widely criticised for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram militants in the country's north-east, and secure the freedom of the girls.

The international campaign #BringBackOurGirls was launched shortly after the abduction, aimed at putting pressure on the Nigerian government to secure the return of the girls.

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