From the
encounter of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, one of those who were able to
make their way back home from Sambisa Forest, said the camps they were taken to
were all trees and shrubs, with no buildings for shelter.
The escapee
schoolgirl, who disclosed this to LEADERSHIP in Maiduguri when she and 27 other
of the girls who had been abducted were brought to Government House, Maiduguri
to meet with the state governor, said she doubted whether the over 200 of her
schoolmates still in captivity were comfortable there.
The
20-year-old schoolgirl, who agreed to talk to LEADERSHIP but begged not to be
named in the print, said she ran for nearly two days to get home.
“The place
they took us to after abducting us from the school was all forest with short
trees and
shrubs everywhere. There is no single building or house there, but there are
tents made from plastic sheets in some places.
I don’t know if that is where
they call Sambisa. Some of the areas are thick and dark; some places have pools
of water.
On the day
we arrived there we were given food, but some of us did not eat and they warned
us that we should better eat, because we would spend a long time with them
there and that they did not intend to harm us, but to make us good Muslim women.
I was scared
of eating the rice that we were given to eat, but I drank the can of Malt
drink. It was when they asked us to go fetch water the next day that I and
other girls summoned the courage to escape. We ran all day; we kept on running
until we got to some place where we were assisted by villagers to get home,”
she said.
Explaining
how they were taken into the forest, the girl said there was no visible road
leading to it.
“They kept
on driving through the bush. You can’t see any visible route ahead, but the men
just tore through the forest, avoiding trees and thick shrubs.
Even when their
vehicle tyres burst they didn’t stop; they continued to drive and if they came
across any vehicle, they would forcefully take over the vehicle or seize the
tyre, fix it and continue to move until we got to the place where they said we
had arrived.”
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