Militant Islamic group Boko Haram have released a new video in which they claim to show around 100 girls that the group “liberated” from a school in north-east Nigeria last month.

In the video obtained by AFP, the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, is shown laughing and telling the camera that Boko Haram had “liberated” the girls, who had now converted to Islam. He said:

“These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with… we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims”

Previously, Shekau had threatened to sell the girls that the group had abducted, but in this video he stated that he would hold them hostage until all imprisoned militants were freed, saying:

“We will never release them until after you release our brethren”

By pushing for the release of Boko Haram prisoners, the group appears to be open for negotiation, although it is unclear whether the Nigerian government would offer such a prisoner exchange, with leaders already criticised for their handling of the kidnappings.

The UK and US have sent teams of “experts” to help find the location of the abducted girls and devise a plan to safely rescue them.