From the rest, silence. No sign of where they had been taken or what could have happened to them for almost two years, even as the world screamed #BringBackOurGirls. 
 
 Hundreds of parents left, day after day, night after night, and then months with no information. 
 
 Until now. 
 
 CNN has obtained a video of some of the "Chibok Girls" sent to negotiators by their captors as a "proof of life." 
 
 The video had been seen by negotiators and some members of the government. 
 
 But no one had shown the parents. Until now. 
 
 'Proof of life' recording 
 
 Rifkatu Ayuba catches sight of her long-lost, desperately missed, now 17-year-old. "My Saratu!" she wails, reaching out to a laptop screen, the closest she's been to her child in two years. She is desperate to comfort her little girl, but helpless. 
 
 Saratu Ayuba is one of 15 girls seen in the recording shown to some of the families for the first time at an emotional meeting this week. Wearing a purple abaya, with a patterned brown scarf covering her hair, Saratu stares directly into the camera. 
 
 "I felt like removing her from the screen," Ayuba tells us, desperate to pluck Saratu from the mysterious location where she is being held and bring her home. "If I could, I would have removed her from the screen." 
 
 The video is believed to have been made last December as part of negotiations between the government and Boko Haram 
 
 It was released by someone keen to give the girls' parents hope that some of their daughters are still alive, and to motivate the government to help release them. 
 
 The girls, their hair covered and wearing long, flowing robes, line up against a dirty yellow wall. They show no obvious signs of maltreatment. 
 
 Scripted appeal 
 
 As the camera focuses in on each of them, a man behind the camera fires off questions: "What's your name? Was that your name at school? Where were you taken from?" 
 
 One by one, each girl calmly states her name and explains that she was taken from Chibok Government Secondary School. Only the occasional hesitation betrays a flicker of fear and emotion. 
 
 As the two minute clip comes to an end, one of the girls, Naomi Zakaria, makes a final -- apparently scripted -- appeal to whoever is watching, urging the Nigerian authorities to help reunite the girls with their families. 
 
 "I am speaking on 25 December 2015, on behalf of the all the Chibok girls and we are all well," she says, stressing the word "all." Her intonation seems to imply that the 15 teens seen in the video have been chosen to represent the group as a whole. 
 
 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls It's been three years since the "Chibok girls" were stolen from their families. For the first time, we see some of the girls alive in a video obtained by CNN. This is who they are. Hide Caption 1 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Muwa Daniel Hide Caption 2 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Juliana Yakubu Hide Caption 3 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Ramati Yaga Hide Caption 4 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Naomi Yaga Hide Caption 5 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Saratu Ayuba Hide Caption 6 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Naomi Zakaria Hide Caption 7 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Jummai Mutah Hide Caption 8 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Falmata Musa Hide Caption 9 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Martha James Hide Caption 10 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Maraima Yahaya Hide Caption 11 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Naomi Yahona Hide Caption 12 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Kwazuku Haman Hide Caption 13 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Rifkatu Umar Hide Caption 14 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Hauwa Ishaya Hide Caption 15 of 16 Photos: A glimpse at the Chibok girls Ruth Amos Hide Caption 16 of 16 
 
 The date given by Naomi matches information embedded in the video, suggesting it was filmed on Christmas Day, though whether that's true or whether the day was picked deliberately is unknown. 
 
 Most of the 276 girls taken from Chibok on April 14, 2014 were Christian. They are believed to have been forced to convert to Islam by their terrorist captors. 
 
 Their kidnapping -- and a lack of progress in tracking down and returning the girls -- sparked mass protests in Nigeria and across the world, with luminaries including Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai joining the social media campaign to #BringBackOurGirls 
 
 Classmate's lucky escape 
 
 The Nigerian government says it has a copy of the "proof of life" video, and that it is in negotiations with those who supplied it to secure the girls' release, but says it remains unable to confirm or reject the recording's authenticity. 
 
 Lai Mohammed, the country's Minister of Information, said there were concerns that the girls did not appear to have changed sufficiently, that they are not as different as one might expect, given the two years that have elapsed since their disappearance. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Nigeria Senator: Chibok video obtained by CNN is credible Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Nigeria Senator: Chibok video obtained by CNN is credible 07:25 
 
 CNN spoke to a classmate of the girls seen in the footage, who confirmed the identity of several of her friends. 
 
 The soft-spoken teen, whose identity we will not reveal for her safety, was supposed to be at the school that Sunday night to sit exams along with the other girls, but made a last minute decision to go home, from where she could hear the school being attacked. 
 
 "We ran into the bush and stayed there for a month," she says. 
 
 Watching the video, she becomes emotional, exclaiming 'Oh my God!' as she recognizes a close friend, points out another who was in the same hostel as her, and identifies one of the school's prefects, a leader in her class. 
 
 While she considers herself one of the "lucky ones," the teenager says she still has nightmares about the experience. 
 
 "If I hear something on the news about them, it makes me have bad dreams and I cry," she confides. 
 
 Two years of pain 
 
 Crowded around, their eyes glued to the computer screen, three of the girls' mothers weep and hug each other. 
 
 Rifkatu Ayuba, Yana Galang and Mary Ishaya made the 77 mile (125km) journey from Chibok to Maiduguri reluctantly, not knowing what was in store; accustomed to endless media requests and intrusions into their grief, they arrived world weary and impatient. 
 
 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram 
 
 
 
 "The Boko Haram insurgency has left a toll on our community, and the impact has been physical, psychological and economic," she explains. "There is a lot of trauma, but there is resilience as well. With this series I want to capture the strength, struggles, joy, sadness and the human spirit as the crisis abates and people move on." 
 
 Click through the gallery to read more stories of Boko Haram's survivors Aid worker and photographer Fati Abubakar captures the portraits and stories of those living in Nigeria's Maiduguri -- the heart of Boko Haram territory -- in her Instagram and Facebook series, "Bits of Borno." The city is also her home town."The Boko Haram insurgency has left a toll on our community, and the impact has been physical, psychological and economic," she explains. "There is a lot of trauma, but there is resilience as well. With this series I want to capture the strength, struggles, joy, sadness and the human spirit as the crisis abates and people move on." Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Ibrahim – "I don't know where my parents are. I don't know whether they died or are somewhere else after we all ran from our village. But some of my aunts are in another camp. I visit them occasionally. I live here in Kusheri (a new community that moved to Maiduguri). The Bulama (traditional leader) gave me a room. His family feeds me. I don't go to (formal) school but I have joined the other kids in the Islamic school in the neighborhood." Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Sergeant Lawan – "I was an ex-soldier living in Bama when the Boko Haram terrorists came. They burned all of my property, my animals and killed my two sons. My son had married June 15th, 2013 and he was killed 1st September, two months after his wedding. We walked to Maiduguri and have been living here for some time now, but I struggle with food, clothing and a mattress to lay my head on. I still don't have food and I have a young 10-year-old and a wife to feed." Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Kellu – "Myself, my sons, their wives, and their children ran to Maiduguri. It's 16 of us in four rooms. We've left everything behind. We don't have money anymore. Not even food. I want my sons to find jobs so the family can survive." Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Bulama Mustapha – "I am the Bulama for the compound we live in. We are about a hundred in number. Since we moved to this neighborhood from Yimimi, Konduga Local Community, we haven't received help, be it clothing, food or anything. They (NGOs) wrote our names (down) 10 weeks ago but we haven't seen them again. We sell charcoal to help pay rent. Its 1,000 Naira ($5) a room per month and the landlord has started saying there will be an increase in rent to 3,000 Naira ($15). Most of us might end up being evicted. That is what we are worried about." Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Hajia – "I come to the market at 6am and sit at my spot. I leave at 6pm. I check all of the women coming into Monday Market. We have to be strict. We have to ensure everyone passes by security checks. I'm dedicated to doing my job." Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Ya Hajja – "Boko Haram attacked our village, Malari in Konduga Local Government, and killed my son. So my friend and I found a car and came to Maiduguri. We live with my other son, but he can't feed us all the time, so we beg on the street." Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Mohammed – "I've a lot of problems with the university. It's seven of us in one room -- that's unhealthy. The water we fetch is also unhealthy. Then the mattresses we were given have all sorts of dirt on them. The toilet is terrible, it's a reservoir for infections. Lectures are 45 minutes per class because of the insurgency. Everyone wants to rush back home. We don't have even time with our tutors. And I'm a bookworm, I love studying, so that's an issue for me." Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Baana Hajja – "The Boko Haram terrorists went away with two of my siblings and my brother was shot on our way to Maiduguri. Even after finding safety here, we have lots of problems. Food, rent. We've too (many) issues. And there's not much trade. I sew caps but sometimes you can't even buy the thread because there's no money. The government and NGO food distribution is yet to reach our neighborhood." Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Anonymous – "She was so quiet it was disturbing," Abubakar recalls on meeting this anonymous subject. "I wonder what scars she came with. The mass relocation to Maiduguri during Boko Haram has brought a lot of the villagers to the town. And one wonders what they had to endure." Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Fatime – "(Boko Haram) didn't touch me because they said I was old. So they left with the other women in the town, I heard the women screaming. I didn't sleep for days. But I continued living in the neighborhood, selling groundnut. The (Boko Haram) boys used to come and buy the peanuts as they passed. Day and night I thought of ways to leave the town. Eventually I ran. It took me a week to walk from the village in Baga to Maiduguri." Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: In photos: Life after Boko Haram Bulama – "We used to live so peacefully with our elders, our neighbors, our families, before Boko Haram attacked our village. We had businesses and all of us were doing well, none of us had ever been idle. But then the terrorists chased us out and we ran to Maiduguri. We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. We've lost everything and almost everyone: wives, children, parents. We don't know anyone, not a lot of people help with jobs. No one gives you a dime. We just sit under the tree, sew caps and go home. Occasionally we sell one and pay rent. We just hope to sell more caps to survive because all the (borders) for other businesses are closed and the terrorists will kill you at the borders if you attempt." Hide Caption 12 of 12 
 
 But this time it was different: there was a rare of glimmer of hope. 
 
 We told them we had important information to share with them about their daughters. Then we explained that we had a video of girls we believed to be their daughters and we wanted their help to verify it. 
 
 Clad in boldly-printed headscarves and wrappers, the trio sat in the courtyard of a Maiduguri hotel, and watched intently as we hit "play." 
 
 Within seconds, their worry-lined faces crumpled, the bottled-up pain of the past two years flowed freely. Hardly able to speak through the tears, Ayuba and Ishaya were able to point out their daughters, Saratu and Hauwa in the crowd of young women on the screen. 
 
 Plea for negotiations 
 
 But for Galang, there was no such reward for her journey: She looked and looked, but her daughter Rifqata was not among the captives shown in the video. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Taken girls of Nigeria Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Taken girls of Nigeria 01:08 
 
 Her heartrending sobs as she came to realize this were difficult to hear. 
 
 "We have seen enough," she says eventually. "We know that the girls are alive and they are hidden. We are not worried. Our daughters look well. 
 
 "We have heard a lot of stories before but this video confirms that they are alive. The government should negotiate with Boko Haram ." 
 
 And there is comfort in this at least -- to know that, even after two years, there is still a chance the girls will be brought home to their families. 
 
 "I didn't see my daughter but I now have more hope that she is alive," she tells us and her friends. "You can see what is yours on the screen but you can't get it. 
 
 "All we want is our daughters." ||||| FILE - In this July 30, 2015, file photo, women and children rescued by Nigerian soldiers from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in the northeast of Nigeria, arrive at the military office in Maiduguri,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 30, 2015, file photo, women and children rescued by Nigerian soldiers from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in the northeast of Nigeria, arrive at the military office in Maiduguri, Nigeria. A video appearing to show proof of life of some of Nigeria's kidnapped Chibok girls... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 30, 2015, file photo, women and children rescued by Nigerian soldiers from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in the northeast of Nigeria, arrive at the military office in Maiduguri, Nigeria. A video appearing to show proof of life of some of Nigeria's kidnapped Chibok girls... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 30, 2015, file photo, women and children rescued by Nigerian soldiers from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in the northeast of Nigeria, arrive at the military office in Maiduguri,... (Associated Press) 
 
 LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A schoolmate says she cried with joy when she saw a Boko Haram video appearing to show some of Nigeria's kidnapped Chibok girls, with images of tearful parents recognizing their daughters who have not been heard from since the mass abduction by the Islamic extremists two years ago. 
 
 "The moment I saw them and recognized their faces — Saratu Ayuba, Jummai Mutah, and Kwazigu Hamman — I started crying, with tears of joy rolling down from my eyes, thanking God for their lives," she says. 
 
 The young woman, who now calls herself Saa and is going to college in the United States, was among several dozen who escaped, jumping down from the back of an open truck after Boko Haram had kidnapped them. The extremists seized 276 girls who had gathered for science exams at the Government Girls Secondary School in the northeast town of Chibok. 
 
 Saa spoke in a statement through the Education Must Continue Initiative, a Washington-based project started by Nigerian Emmanuel Ogede, which is sponsoring the education of Saa and nine other students who escaped. 
 
 "Seeing them gives me the courage to tell the world today that we should not lose hope," Saa said. "Let's keep praying and campaigning for #BringBackOurGirls. I want the world to raise their voice. Let's not stop until the government hears us and does something about it." 
 
 CNN on Wednesday aired the video, believed made in December, of girls wearing the Islamic hijab, and of one mother reaching out to a computer screen as she recognizes her daughter. 
 
 "My Saratu," she wails, before breaking down in sobs. She says Saratu was 15 when she was kidnapped and now is 17. 
 
 The video shows 15 of the girls — one with a mischievous grin, one looking uncompromising, downright defiant, and one downcast. One can feel the pain that shows in the eyes of many of them. They give the date as Christmas, Dec. 25, 2015. 
 
 While Boko Haram is thought to have abducted thousands of people over the years, the mass abduction brought the extremist group to the world's attention. The campaign hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went as far as the White House, used by U.S. first lady Michelle Obama. 
 
 The failure of Nigerian officials and the military to rescue the girls brought international condemnation and contributed to President Goodluck Jonathan's loss in elections last year. 
 
 Jonathan at first had denied there had been a mass abduction, but international pressure soon forced him to accept help from other countries. 
 
 The United States, Britain and France were among those that sent advisers, including hostage negotiators. U.S. and British drones located at least one group of about 80 of the girls, which was reported to Nigeria's government and military, but nothing was done. 
 
 Andrew Pocock, who was British high commissioner to Nigeria until his retirement last year, told The Sunday Times magazine last month that it was considered too dangerous to the other girls to attempt a ground or air rescue. "You might have rescued a few, but many would have been killed. ... You were damned if you do and damned if you don't," the magazine quoted him as saying. 
 
 Nigeria's military has cited the same fears. Yet that has not stopped them from attacking towns and villages where Boko Haram has held thousands of civilians captive. The military boasted last week that soldiers have rescued 11,595 civilian hostages since Feb. 26. 
 
 But none has been from Chibok. 
 
 CNN reported that the "proof of life" video was sent in December to negotiators trying to free the girls. It shows an interview with Information Minister Lai Mohammed saying the government is reviewing and assessing the video. 
 
 Senator Shehu Sani, who has been involved in past negotiations with Boko Haram about the Chibok girls, told The Associated Press he found the video credible. Yakubu Nkeki, leader of a support group of parents of the kidnapped girls, said he briefly saw part of the CNN video, in between power blackouts frequent in Nigeria, and recognized some of the girls. 
 
 "We are all well," one of the girls says in the video, emphasizing the "all." There have been fears that Boko Haram's increasing use of female children and adults to carry out suicide bombings indicate they are turning captives into weapons, including the Chibok girls. 
 
 The video ends with one of the girls appealing to Nigeria's government to meet unspecified promises. 
 
 There's been no word of the girls since April 2014, when Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said they had converted to Islam and threatened to sell them into slavery or forced marriage with his fighters. Many recently freed girls are pregnant. 
 
 Two mothers and 16 fathers have died since the mass abduction, some of them victims of Boko Haram attacks. Others died from illnesses blamed on stress, according to Nkeki, who spoke to the AP by phone from Chibok. 
 
 Nigeria's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is due in Chibok on Thursday for the anniversary of the kidnappings, Nkeki said, complaining the issue has become politicized. He said the community is angry that their only school remains in the ruins created by Boko Haram, which firebombed buildings as they took off with the girls. 
 
 Some 20,000 children in the town and its surroundings have no school to attend, he said Thursday as parents started gathering at the school to pray for the safe return of their daughters. 
 
 "Boko Haram has achieved its aim. They say they don't want us to have Western education and our children don't," Nkeki said.
– Thursday marks an awful anniversary for families of the nearly 300 girls kidnapped from their school in Nigeria: It's been exactly two years since Boko Haram staged the mass abduction in Chibok. Now, a video has emerged that appears to show some of the girls, a "proof of life" video apparently taken for use in negotiations, reports CNN, which obtained it. The clip shows 15 of the girls stating their names, and one says that "all" the girls are well. Families and friends confirm it's legit. "The moment I saw them and recognized their faces—Saratu Ayuba, Jummai Mutah, and Kwazigu Hamman—I started crying, with tears of joy rolling down from my eyes, thanking God for their lives," one girl who managed to escape tells the AP. However, it's not clear when the video was shot. One of the girls in it states that she is speaking in December 2015, but the Nigerian government says it may have been taken soon after the kidnapping and thus means little. "As long as we have not closed our search for the girls, of course we’ll keep talking," a government official tells the New York Times. But "most of these claims, they turn out not to be true." The militant group kidnapped 276 girls, but about 50 managed to escape fairly quickly. The rest have not been seen since. "My Saratu!" one mother says of her now 17-year-old daughter, upon seeing her in the video. "If I could, I would have removed her from the screen."