Rescued Women and Children Narrate Ordeal in Boko Haram Captivity

The Nigerian army rescued hundreds of women and children last week from the Islamist fighters Boko Haram in Sambisa Forest and it has received a lot of international attention as they are concerned about the torture the women and children went through in the hands of the sect.
Through tears, smiles and eyes filled with pain, survivors tells that tragic stories. Read below;


A 24 years old mother of two narrated the trauma she experienced in the camp;

“They didn't allow us to move an inch. If you needed the toilet, they followed you. We were kept in one place. We were under bondage. We thank God to be alive today. We thank the Nigerian army for saving our lives.When we saw the soldiers we raised our hands and shouted for help. Boko Haram who were guarding us started stoning us so we would follow them to another hideout, but we refused because we were sure the soldiers would rescue us,” 

Cecilia Abel, another victim said her husband and first son had been killed in her presence before the sect forced her and her remaining eight children into the forest. She said for two weeks before the military came to their rescue, she had barely eaten.
“We were fed only ground dry maize in the afternoons. It was not good for human consumption,” she said. “Many of us that were captured died in Sambisa Forest. Even after our rescue about 10 died on our way to this place.”
Another touching story was that of Lami Musa who has a 5 years old baby girl. She said;

"They took me so I can marry one of their commanders," she said of the militants who carried her away from her village after slaughtering her husband and forcing her to abandon their three young children, whose fates remain unknown. That was five months ago in Lassa village. When they realized I was pregnant, they said I was impregnated by an infidel, and we have killed him. Once you deliver, within a week we will marry you to our commander," she said, tears running down her cheeks as she recalled her husband and lost children. Musa gave birth to a curly-haired daughter the night before last week's rescue''.

''As gunshots rang out, "Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and that we should run away with them. But we said no," she said from a bed in the camp clinic, a blanket wrapped around ankles so swollen that each step had been agony. Then they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her," she said, bending reflexively at the waist as though she still had to shield her newborn''.