It’s been 441 days since the abducted Chibok girls went missing, all efforts from the government and international bodies have proven futile. According to BBC, some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped have been forced to join the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Witnesses say some are now being used to terrorise other captives, and are even carrying out killings themselves. The testimony cannot be verified but Amnesty International says other girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been forced to fight. Three women who claim they were held in the same camps as some of the Chibok girls have told the Reporters that some of them have been brainwashed and are now carrying out punishments on behalf of the militants. Seventeen-year-old Miriam (not her real name) fled Boko Haram after being held for six months. She was forced to marry a militant, and is now pregnant with his child. Recounting her first days in the camp she said: “They told to us get ready, that they were going to marry us off.”
She and four others refused. “They came back with four men, they slit their throats in front of us. They then said that this will happen to any girl that refuses to get married,” Faced with that choice, she agreed to marry, and was then repeatedly molested. “There was so much pain,” she said. “I was only there in body… I couldn’t do anything about it.” “They told us: ‘You women should learn from your husbands because they are giving their blood for the cause. We must also go to war for Allah.'” She said the girls had been “brainwashed” and that she had witnessed some of them kill several men in her village. “They were Christian men. They [the Boko Haram fighters] forced the Christians to lie down. Then the girls cut their throats.” “The abduction and brutalization of young women and girls seems to be part of the modus operandi of Boko Haram,” said Netsanet Belay, Africa director, research and advocacy at Amnesty International. Anna, aged 60, is one of them. She fled a camp in the Sambisa forest in December where she was held for five months. She now sits beneath a tree close to the cathedral in the Adamawa state capital of Yola. Her only possessions are the clothes she ran away in. She said she saw some of the Chibok schoolgirls just before she fled the forest. “They had guns,” she said. When pressed on how she could be sure that it is was the Chibok schoolgirls that she’d seen, Anna said: “They [Boko Haram] didn’t hide them. They told us: ‘These are your teachers from Chibok.’ “They shared the girls out as teachers to teach different groups of women and girls to recite the Koran,” Anna recalled.
“Young girls who couldn’t recite were being flogged by the Chibok girls.” Anna said she felt no malice towards the girls she had seen taking part in the violence, only pity. “It’s not their fault they were forced to do it.” she added. “Anyone who sees the Chibok girls has to feel sorry for them.” “Every day at dawn they would come and throw water over us and order us to wake up and start praying.” “Then one day they brought in a man wearing uniform. They made us all line up and then said to me: ‘Because you are always crying, you will must kill this man.’ “I was given the knife and ordered to cut his neck. I said I couldn’t do it. “They cut his throat in front of me. That’s when I passed out.” “She was just like any of the Boko Haram wives,” she explained. “We are more scared of the wives than the husbands.” With hundreds of women and children recently rescued from Boko Haram strongholds in the Sambisa forest, the Nigerian government has set up a programme to help escapees. Dr Fatima Akilu is in charge of Nigeria’s counter-violence and extremism programme. She is currently looking after around 300 of the recently rescued women and children.
“We have not seen signs of radicalisation,” she told us. “But if it did occur we would not be surprised.” “In situations where people have been held, there have been lots of stories where they have identified with their captors.” “We have a team of imams… that are trained to look out for radical ideas and ideology. “Recovery is going to be slow, it’s going to be long… It’s going to be bumpy.” As the hunt for the Chibok schoolgirls continues, and questions are raised about what state they will be in if they ever return home, those who have managed to escape are beginning the mammoth task of coming to terms with their experiences. “I can’t get the images out of my head,” said Anna, breaking down in tears. “I see people being slaughtered. I just pray that the nightmares don’t return.” For others, the nightmare is continuing every day. Miriam is expecting her baby any day now. “I hope that the baby is a girl,” she said. “I would love her more than any boy. I’m scared of having a boy.” Miriam’s future is bleak. She is terrified her “husband” will find her and kill her for running away. Her community has also rejected her. “People consider me an outcast,” she said. “They remind me that I have Boko Haram inside me.”
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