Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. Photos: Reuters

The leader of the Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram has offered to release more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by his fighters last month in exchange for prisoners, according to the latest video released by the group and seen on YouTube.

About 100 girls wearing full veils and praying are shown in an undisclosed location in the 17-minute video in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks and addresses the Nigerian authorities.

Boko Haram militants, who are fighting for an Islamist state, stormed a secondary school in the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14 and seized 276 girls who were sitting for their exams. Some of the school-girls managed to escape but about 200 remain missing.

The Nigerian government says it is reviewing all options following video released by the Islamist rebel group

A government official yesterday said that “all options” were being considered to secure the release of the school-girls.

Meanwhile Nigeria has deployed two army divisions to hunt for the girls and several nations including the United States, Britain, Israel and France have offered help or sent their own experts.

In a 1.25-minute clip of the video on YouTube, scores of girls wearing black and grey veils in Muslim style, sit on the ground and chant, before Shekau, wearing military fatigues and holding an AK-47, addresses the camera. He appears confident and at one point laughs.

“All I am saying is that if you want us to release the girls that we have kidnapped, those who have not accepted Islam will be treated as the Prophet (Mohammed) treated infidels and they will stay with us,” he said, according to a translation of his words originally spoken in a Nigerian language.

“We will not release them while you detain our brothers,” he said, before naming a series of cities in Nigeria.

It was not clear from the video whether he was in the same location as the girls.

The Nigerian government has seen the latest video, Mike Omeri, a senior official in the Ministry of Information, told a news conference.

“The government of Nigeria is considering all options towards freeing the girls and reuniting them with their parents,”the official added.

The Nigerian authorities are holding hundreds of suspected Boko Haram militants and there have been several jail break attempts. Suspected militants overpowered guards at a prison near the presidential villa in Abuja last March, triggering a gun battle that killed 21 people. In another incident the same month, insurgents attempting to free captured comrades fought a two-hour battle in March at Giwa barracks in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Human rights groups have said previously that Giwa barracks has been used to illegally detain and torture suspects, something the military denies. Global outrage over the Boko Haram's abduction of 200 schoolgirls last month has focused attention on the group, which has destabilised large swathes of northeast Nigeria and its neighbours.