Teenager describes ‘terrifying’ ordeal
Science student abducted from school says she’s now scared to return to class
BAUCHI, Nigeria — One of the teenagers who escaped from Islamic extremists who abducted more than 300 school-girls says the kidnapping was “too terrifying for words,” and she is now scared to go back to school.
Sarah Lawan, a 19- year- old science student, spoke Sunday as Nigerians prayed for the safety of the 276 students still held captive. Their prayers were joined by Pope Francis.
“Let us all join in prayer for the immediate release of the school girls kidnapped in Nigeria,” the Roman Catholic leader tweeted, using the trending # BringBackOurGirls.
Lawan said more of the girls could have escaped but that they were frightened by their captors’ threats to shoot them. She spoke in the local Hausa language in a phone interview from Chibok, her home and the site of the mass abduction in northeast Nigeria.
“I am pained that my other colleagues could not summon the courage to run away with me,” Lawan said.
“Now I cry each time I come across their parents and see how they weep when they see me.”
Police say 53 students have escaped. Nigeria’s home grown Boko Haram terrorist network is threatening to sell those who remain in captivity into slavery.
In churches across the country, Nigerians prayed for the girls, whose plight has brought together ordinary people in a year that had seen growing dissension between Muslims and Christians, disagreements exacerbated by the increasingly deadly at tacks of the Boko Haram terrorist network. Nigeria’s population of 170 million has almost equal numbers of Christians and Muslims.
The Rev. Stephen Omale prayed at a church in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
“Wherever they are, God will bring them out in his own mercy, he will see that they are brought out safely, without harm and also that this act will bring an end to all those who are perpetrating these acts,” he told congregants.
Boko Haram claimed two bomb blasts that killed about 100 people and wounded more than 200 in the capital last month.
Also Sunday, a leading Nigerian rights group de manded the UN Security Council impose sanctions on Boko Haram, saying expressions of concern and condemnation are not enough.
“The future of these missing school girls hangs in a balance. The council should not leave them to fend for themselves,” executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni of the Socio- Economic Rights and Accountability Project said in a statement.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer called for a reward, including refugee status, for any one who is not a terrorist that provides help leading to the girls’ rescue.
The United States al ready has designated Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization, as
The future of these missing school girls hangs in a balance. ADETOKUNBO MUMUNI SOCIO- ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND AC COUNT ABILITY PROJECT
has the European Union, making it illegal to contribute to the group.
And Washington last year put a $7- million ransom on the head of Boko Haram leader Abu bakar Shekau, who said in a video last week that he will sell the girls into slavery.
There also have been reports that some of the girls have been forced into marriage with their abductors, who paid a nominal bride price of $12, and that some have been carried across borders into Cameroon and Chad.
Lawan said other girls who escaped later have told her that the abductors spoke of their plans to marry them.
She said the thought of go ing back to school terrifies her — either the burnt- out ruins of Chibok Government Girls Secondary School or any other school. But it will have to be done if she is to realize her dream of studying law.
“I am really scared to go back there, but I have no option if I am asked to go be cause I need to finish my final year exams which were stopped half way through,” she said.