Ajuji and her children
The
'wives' of Boko Haram members who managed to escape from the deadly
Sambisa forest have made shocking revelations about how they suffered.
‘Wives’ of Boko Haram commanders who returned from Sambisa
Forest after their escape have continued to be stigmatised by their
community members who have lost trust in them. OLUFEMI ATOYEBI and HINDI
LIVINUS write
United by grief, ‘wives’ of Boko Haram commanders had different
tales to tell, even though they were held in the same confinement by
their abductors for years. Their stories are about human suffering,
agonies, survival and ultimately, triumph. Although they could be
inspiring, they are stories of assault on humanity.
At some point, many of the captives had to eat grass to survive the
grueling starvation so they could see another day. There were those,
who in an attempt to flee and escape the harrowing experience of
starvation and malnutrition suffered by their children, set out at dawn
to escape but they did not reach their destinations as they found death
on the way. Some were felled in their tracks by search parties of Boko
Haram fighters who were saddled with the task of ensuring that anyone
who attempted to escape never lived to enjoy freedom. But for many of
them, despite their escape, life remains harrowing.
For Hauwa Babajo, who gave birth to a daughter after her union with
a Boko Haram commander, anyone that had a plan to escape risked
betrayal if they confided in any of the fellow captives or even their
‘partner’. She escaped from Sabilu Huda, a settlement within the forest.
She said women who returned from the forest were also stigmatised by
people in the communities who do not seem to trust them.
“You don’t expect any of the wives of the Boko Haram fighters
to confide in their husbands that they plan to flee. In the forest,
there were commercial activities going on. There were tailors, butchers
and so on. Most of the trading was done by Boko Haram commanders who had
partners in Michika, Madagali, Gwoza and Damboa. Living in Sambisa
Forest was hellish.
“We face all manner of abuses from members of our community who
call us Boko Haram. Our children are also not spared; they are called
children of vipers. They say after being chased away from Sambisa, we
returned with snakes from our Boko Haram husbands,” she said.
Sometimes, she wished she had never returned to Madagali because of
the stigmatisation she and her daughter, Zara, have had to endure since
their return six months ago. Her Boko Haram husband was allegedly
killed by the Nigerian military in a raid.
Married off to one of the Boko Haram fighters in Sambisa, Mary
Palam, similarly fled the forest after almost three years in captivity
because of the difficult life she was subjected to. She said many of
them begged to survive.
“There was acute food shortage at the camp and finding clothes
to wear was also one of the biggest challenges of living in Sambisa. Our
experience can be described as living in hell while on earth. It was
tough. There were people who lived on begging in order to survive. Only
few families, especially those belonging to commanders, were able to
feed their families,” she said.
Mariam Ajuji, who was married off to Umaru Abdullahi, following her
abduction in April 2014, said she also escaped from the enclave of
Sambisa because of hardship, adding that she had two children for
Abdulahi in the forest.
“I had known him to be fighting for the group ever since I was
taken into captivity by the sect. When the insurgents stormed our house
in Madagali, Abdullahi indicated interest in taking me and my sister
with them. My family members were initially resistant but the sect
threatened to kill our father. They took us and other ladies to
Limankara and later Jaji.
“It was hell on earth. There were days when we were locked up
without food or water. Those were days that the men would say they were
going to do god’s work, meaning they had gone to either attack a town or
wage a war against the Nigerian Army. My sister was separated from me
but we ended up re-uniting in Sambisa again,” she said.
Her eldest brother and father had died during the time she was
away. She said her brother had fled to Cameroon with his wife and two
kids but was killed by Cameroonian gendarme, who took him for a member
of the sect. He was killed in front of his wife and children. Mariam
said her days in Boko Haram captivity came to an end in November 2018
when she escaped from Sambisa Forest. After failing in her earlier
attempts, her husband divorced her and threatened to execute her but
took her back as wife before her fourth and final escape plan succeeded.
With a search party launched to find her, a woman came to her rescue,
hiding her in her home until the search was called off.
One of the ‘wives’ of Boko Haram insurgents who escaped
For Bilkisu, her husband, Buba Yusuf, also known as Bubarisko, had
no option but to agree to join the Boko Haram sect as a leader after
threats that their two sons would be killed if he disagreed to abide by
the sect’s doctrine. She said one of the leading figures of Boko Haram,
Mamman Nur, visited her husband in Madagali and took him away. He was
only returned after he agreed to do their bidding.
After the Nigerian soldiers invaded Madagali to liberate it, her
husband fled to Sambisa while one of her sons was killed with 29 other
males after they were identified as Boko Haram fighters. He lost another
son in an air raid. After her return, she was handed over to the
Nigerian Army by people who identified her as the wife of a Boko Haram
commandant still in Sambisa.
“It has never been my husband’s will to join the sect. There
was a slim chance we could get out of their web; we considered the fate
of our four middle-aged boys and what would happen to them if we went
against the instructions of the sect members. My husband was given a
leadership role in Madagali and referred to as Amir. When I survived
military onslaught with my two daughters, we returned to our community
but members of the community handed us to the military over allegations
that we had come to spy for my husband.
“I was put in chains and taken to the military camp in Chibok
where I was interrogated and asked to reveal the identities of other
members of the group. But after a month, they issued me a clearance with
documents (which she proudly brandished),” she said.
However, Amina Mohammed, 42, was not married off to a Boko Haram
insurgent; she and her husband were kidnapped by the group. She made her
escape from Sambisa Forest while she was three months pregnant, but she
was delivered of her baby during her journey to freedom.
“I gave birth while I was fleeing. I saw a Nigerian fighter
helicopter hovering over us during the journey. The soldiers took us to
Gwoza which was nearby, but I told them I could not find my
three-year-old son. I left my newborn child with one of the women with
me when the soldiers rescued us and I informed them I was going in
search of my son whom I had left behind in Sambisa.
“I found the boy playing with the children of my neighbours in
one of the Sambisa settlements. I took him and found my way back to
Gwoza. This was after spending three days inside Sambisa Forest. I made
my escape under the cover of darkness,” she said.
Amina said she was held with her husband, a teacher. According to
her, the escape was not a smooth one because she was twice betrayed by
neighbours who told one of the Boko Haram commanders about her intention
to flee. Afterwards, she was locked in a cell and threatened to be
killed if she attempted to escape.
“Wives of Boko Haram fighters literally live from hand to mouth
and those who have difficulties coping with the deprivation and
starvation choose to escape the suffering by fleeing the forest once the
opportunity of escape presents itself,” Amina added.
For Aishatu Usman, her sadness is that even though her daughter,
Zainab, was rescued by the military from Sambisa, she (Zainab) lost her
sanity while in captivity. Zainab was in junior secondary school three
when she was kidnapped with other young girls and married off in the
forest to a Boko Haram fighter.
She said, “I have spent all I have to see that she regains
herself. Right now she doesn’t like the company of people. She doesn’t
also like her hair plaited; at night she awakens every one with cries of
what seem like Quoranic citations. I have been suffering with her since
she returned. My girl was fine before her abduction. All of her
hallucinations started after her return from captivity.”
The District Head of Duhu, Mohammed Sanusi, has been a source of
succour to many of the women upon their return to the town. Many of them
said that they would have made their way back to Sambisa Forest but for
the love shown to them by Sanusi.
A few years ago, Sanusi set up a reconciliation committee named
Kabara Committee, as part of a post-insurgency recovery plan. The
committee, which draws its membership from the headship of the six
villages under Duhu District and representation from Christian and
Muslim communities, identifies returnees, especially women, who were
either rescued or had fled Sambisa, for resettlement.
Speaking on his effort, Sanusi said that nearly 60 per cent of the
youth from the area joined the Boko Haram sect, stressing that the
community must come up with a system so that those who joined the sect
would have reasons to abandon it and return home without fear of
stigmatisation.
He stressed that if the community could be more accommodating;
those who felt they had done any wrong could be encouraged to return.
He said, “We have to treat these women well and get them
re-integrated into the communities because we have learnt that many of
them have a communication channel with their husbands and we believe
that they will convince them with time to come out of hiding and stop
fighting on the side of the insurgents.
“We seek partnership with local and international
non-governmental organisations which we relay their needs to and many of
them have obliged us with assistance for the women. It is still work in
progress, many of them are trained to acquire skills that they want and
given financial assistance that will enable them to start their own
businesses.”
A member of the Kabara Committee, Shinapi Pakka, said returnees were given tests to ascertain the veracity of their stories.
“If someone returns from Sambisa Forest, the committee will sit
with the person and find out from them if they were truly from Sambisa.
We have links with NGOs which offer assistance, including livelihood
support and some money to start a trade after proper checks have been
carried out to ascertain that the returnee poses no threat to the peace
of the community,” he said.
***
Source: Saturday Punch
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