'I will sell them,' Boko Haram leader says of kidnapped Nigerian girls

Fears for the fate of more than 200 Nigerian girls turned even more nightmarish Monday when the leader of the Islamist militant group that kidnapped them announced plans to sell them.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained by Agence France-Presse.

"There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women," he continued, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language.

Boko Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to U.S. officials. Its name means "Western education is sin." In his nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end.

 

Girls, you should go and get married," he said.

The outrageous threat means the girls' parents' worst fears could be realized. Parents have avoided speaking to the media for fear their daughters may be singled out for reprisals.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the video "does appear legitimate."

The tape won't intimidate or deter Nigeria from efforts to save the kidnapped girls, the Nigerian government said.

"It is disheartening that someone would make such a terrible boast," Doyin Okupe, spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, said in an interview with CNN.

"It is to be expected of terrorists," he added. "No group can affect our resolve. We will see this through to the end. We have the commitment and capacity to get this done. No matter what this takes, we will get these girls."

On Sunday, Jonathan vowed, "Wherever these girls are, we'll get them out."

But he also criticized the girls' parents, saying they weren't cooperating fully with police.

"What we request is maximum cooperation from the guardians and the parents of these girls. Because up to this time, they have not been able to come clearly, to give the police clear identity of the girls that have yet to return," he said.

Nigeria's finance minister responds to criticism

Weeks after the girls' April 14 kidnapping, Africa's most populous country seems to be no closer to finding them, triggering complaints of ineptitude -- some of which are expressed on Twitter with the globally trending hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Nigeria's finance minister said Monday that her country's government remains committed to finding the girls, but should have done a better job explaining the situation to the public.

"Have we communicated what is being done properly? The answer is no, that people did not have enough information," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told CNN's Richard Quest.

Revealing details about the investigation is tricky, she said, "because you are dealing with people that you don't know, and you don't know...what they might do to these girls."

On Sunday, about 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission in London, chanting, "Bring them back!" and "Not for sale!"

Crowds from Los Angeles to London rallied Saturday as well.

"We need to take ownership as if this happened in Chicago or this happened in Washington, D.C. We need to be talking about this," Nicole Lee, outgoing president of the TransAfrica Forum, told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper."

"I think people are doing that. It's catching fire."

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in on Twitter over the weekend.

"Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls," she wrote Sunday. "We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls."