Boko Haram Condition: 'I will exchange girls for militant prisoners'

The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram said in a video Monday that he would free more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls in exchange for the release of militant prisoners.

In a recording obtained by Agence France-Presse, Abubakar Shekau claimed the girls had been converted to Islam.

Dozens of girls were shown wearing full veils and praying in the video, whose contents could not be independently verified by NBC News.

"These girls have become Muslims," Shekau said in the recording, according to a translation from AFP.

This screengrab taken from a video obtained by AFP on Monday purportedly shows Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

"We will never release them until after you release our brethren," he said.

The video also showed three girls saying they had converted to Islam.

This is a breaking news story.

CNN