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.
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.
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