These are captives who escaped and made it home on their own, as against those who were rescued by the military and evacuated to internally displaced persons camps run by government and humanitarian groups.
Testimonies from recent escapees revealed that aerial bombing and artillery shelling from government troops, provided the biggest window of opportunity for victims to regain their freedom.
Although the airstrikes destablised Boko Haram fighters and killed many of them, this was not without collateral damage as some women and children reportedly died in the process.
A 30 year old pregnant woman, Salamatu Farouk who was abducted alongside her 14 year old daughter and several family members from a village in Adamawa state, said until the fateful day of her escape, she had given up hope of ever living as a free person .
Boko Haram had controlled swathes of territory across three north eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobeý, kidnapping hundreds of people ,including young women and children ,before the eventual liberation of the area by the military.
Pushed out of the towns and villages by Nigerian soldiers with the help of regional forces from Cameroon and Chad, the militants receded to their main enclave in Sambisa ,and resorted to carrying out bomb attacks on soft targets, including markets and worship places.
Upon arrival at Sambisa, Salamatu and her daughter, Jameela were separated and married off to members of the militant group. Since then they lived a torturous life of constant sexual and physical abuse.
Salamatu said she was given a space under a tree which served as her room, and added that her husband used to visit at night to force himself on her, while her daughter, Jameela was taken to a different camp where she was forced to live with a young fighter in his small plastic hut.
Several women interviewed said they were beaten and threatened with death whenever they resisted their armed husbands. A former captive said she witnessed the execution of women who refused to marry members of the insurgent group.
When military planes dropped bombs on Boko Haram camps, helpless women were caught between the fear of death and hope for freedom. Many grabbed the opportunity and worked out their way to freedom.
“We could not wait for anybody to rescue us, infact I did not see ground soldiers when we left the camp. There were planes dropping bombs, and there was confusion all over camp 1 and camp 2. Our captors were confused, so was everybody,” she stated.
But her frantic effort to locate her sister and other abducted family members during the pandemonium yielded no result. A few weeks later at the end of July, her father, her sister and brother-in-law seized a similar moment to reclaim their freedom.
“My daughter ran to our camp, so we reunited and escaped together. I saw few corpses of women who were killed by the bombs because they hid in the wrong place, which was usually under shrubs where Boko Haram fighters normally hid. We walked for five days and when we reached the town, soldiers received us and treated our wounds. They gave us food and drugs before allowing us to go home. Three of my family members also escaped during a subsequent airstrike,” she said.
Jameela, a junior secondary school pupil before her abduction, said she longed to return to school to fulfil her dream of joining the civil service. But her ambition is threatened by lack of sponsorship, which ceased after Boko Haram killed her father and shattered her family.
Saratu Aliyu, another female escapee, said apart from dead bodies of the unintended victims of air strikes, she came across corpses of other women in the forest, who apparently died of exhaustion while running to safety.
She said more than a hundred women escaped with her, but the number dwindled as they walked, because many could not keep up with the pace due to sickness and malnutrition.
Recounting her experience during their four-day walk to freedom, Saratu recalled her encounter with poisonous snakes and stinging insects which infested the forested swamp, saying the fear that Boko Haram members could track them down, made them even more frightened.
The memory of panicked women and children making their way in the forest and stumbling through shrubs and grasses is a difficult experience that cannot be forgotten so easily. They would stop at night when it was completely dark, but they hardly slept due to strange sounds and sometimes the hissing of snakes.
“We lived on fruits for five days, every one of us was hungry. We were scared because we felt they were on our trail. We heard scary sounds of animals in the night. There was a time we heard a disturbing sound. When we flashed a torch we saw a big snake approaching. Thorns tore our skin.You can see the wounds,” she said.
After witnessing the killing of her husband by her abductors in Bitiku village a year ago, Marylin Joan was forcefully removed from her home to the forest, where she was married off to a Boko Haram fighter at a camp in Sambisa.
Marylin who became pregnant while in captivity, and gave birth to a baby boy after her Boko Haram husband was killed in an air raid by the Nigerian Air Force, said she witnessed the beheading of 49 women who refused to marry the militants at a slaughter house in Gwoza, when her husband was deployed to fight there and he took her with him.
She called for support from government to enable her rebuild her life and support her three children, saying she relies on hand outs from displaced relatives to feed her family.
“I don’t sleep at night, I have bad dreams. I am afraid they will come after me. And the baby is not well, it cries all night,” she stated.
Almost all escapees interviewed were suffering from cough, eye infections or skin irritation, while they showed signs of psychological trauma. They lamented the fact that they never received any assistance from government or any humanitarian group. As such they are finding it difficult to return to normal life or have access to basic needs.
Those who escaped on their own often return to their liberated communities, where there is still no functional health care facility or psycho social support systems to address their problems.
More often such victims face stigmatization and threats from their communities, especially when they are pregnant or have babies for their Boko Haram captors. They are easily labeled as Boko Haram accomplices, even though they were held against their will.
Recently, the Chief of Civilian-Military Relations of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Nicholas Rogers, warned liberated communities against persecution of returnees or labeling them as ‘Boko Haram’. He said more soldiers will be deployed to the communities to maintain peace and prevent extra judicial acts.
In contrast, hundreds of women and children rescued by soldiers , are currently undergoing comprehensive counselling in undisclosed facilities reportedly in Kaduna and Abuja.
Earlier, the Camps Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Adamawa State, Saad Bello had informed Daily Trust that the agency handed over the rescued persons to the office of the National Security Advisor to the President, for advanced psycho social counselling and rehabilitation.
