Survivors of Boko Haram horror have revealed how the terrorists
stoned some of their captives to death, as the military approached to
rescue them from the Sambisa Forest.
Quoting survivors, Associated Press (AP) yesterday reported that
several women also died when they were crushed mistakenly by a Nigerian
military Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). Three people, it reported,
were blown up by a landmine, as they were walking to freedom.
These tragic stories came from girls and women brought to refugees’
camp, the news agency reported, saying the victims are still finding it
hard to believe they are safe.
“We just have to give praise to God that we are alive, those of us
who have survived,” said Lami Musa, 27, as she cuddled her five-day-old
baby girl.
She is among 275 children, girls and women, who were receiving
medical care and being registered yesterday on their first day out of
Boko Haram’s war zone.
Musa was in the first group to be transported by road over three days
to the safety of Malkohi refugees camp, a dust-blown deserted school
set up among baobab trees on the outskirts of Yola, the capital of
Adamawa State.
She had just given birth to her yet-to-be-named baby last week when the crackle of gunfire hinted rescuers might be nearby.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
“Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and said that we
should run away with them. But we said no,” she explained from a bed in
the camp clinic.
“Then, they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her,” she added,
Another survivor of the stoning, Salamatu Bulama, said several girls
and women were killed, but they did not know exactly how many.
They stated that the horrors did not end as the military arrived, as a
group of women hiding in the bush were run over by an APC, whose
operator did not see them. “I think those killed there were about 10,”
said Bulama.
Other women died from stray bullets, she said, naming three she knew.
Bulama shielded her face with her veil and cried when she thought
about another death in the camp: Her only son, a toddler of two, who
died of an illness she said was aggravated by malnutrition two months
ago.
“What will I tell my husband?,” she sobbed
Musa said her husband, the father of the new baby, was killed by Boko
Haram when they abducted her from her village of Lassa in December. She
doesn’t know the fate of their three other children.
At the camp, AP reported, 21 girls and women with bullet wounds and
fractured limbs were taken to the city hospital after they arrived on
Saturday evening. Officials yesterday were collating details of the
rescued 61 women and 214 children, almost all girls.
Health workers put critically malnourished babies on intravenous
drips, babies whose rib cages and shoulder blades protruded like
skeletons were given packs of therapeutic food to suck from.
Through interviews, officials have determined that almost all those
rescued are from Gumsuri, a village near the town of Chibok.
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