WATCH: Boko Haram video claims to show missing Nigerian schoolgirls

There was no indication of when the video was taken, although the quality is better than on previous occasions.

Boko Haram released a new video on May 12 claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls and alleging the teenagers had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, speaks on the video obtained by AFP for 17 minutes before showing what he said were the girls, in Muslim dress and praying in an undisclosed rural location.

A total of 276 girls were abducted on April 14 from the northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, which has a sizeable Christian community. Police say 223 are still missing.

The footage shows about 130 girls in black and grey full-length hijabs sitting on scrubland near trees, reciting the first chapter of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and holding their palms upwards in prayer.

Three of the girls are interviewed. Two say they were Christian and had converted while one said she was Muslim. All three pronounce their belief in Islam, dispassionately to the camera, sometimes looking down at the ground and apparently under duress.

Most of the group behind them were seated cross-legged on the ground. The girls appeared calm and one said that they had not been harmed. There was no indication of when the video was taken, although the quality is better than on previous occasions and at one point an armed man is seen in shot with a hand-held video camera.

Watch video here!