Kidnap victim of Boko Haram escapes
LAGOS, NIGERIA • When the vigilantes who found Amina Ali wandering in the forest took her to her village, residents who saw her immediately began crying.
The 19-year-old, found Wednesday with her baby daughter and — according only to the military — a man, was the first of 219 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok by Boko Haram terrorists two years ago to be found.
“People were so happy, so happy that, yes, there is hope these girls are alive. And once the government puts more effort, we will see some of them,” Hassan Usman, whose niece is among the abducted schoolgirls, told The New York Times. “She was so happy to see her people.”
Vigilante leader Aboku Gaji said he had recognized the teenager instantly, and escorted her to her mother’s home.
“When we arrived at the house … I asked the mother to come and identify someone,” he told the BBC.
“The moment she saw her, she shouted her name: ‘ Amina, Amina!’ She gave her the biggest hug ever, as if they were going to roll on the ground.
“The girl started comforting the mother, saying: ‘Please Mum, take it easy, relax. I never thought I would ever see you again, wipe your tears. God has made it possible for us to see each other again.’ ”
Amina’s brother said he had immediately recognized his sister, who told him she had fled a military attack on the Boko Haram forest camp.
“I was surprised to see her. They asked if I know her. I said I do. They asked if she knows me — she told them that I was her senior brother,” Maina Ali said. “I am very happy to see her.”
Idriss Danladi, a village doctor, said Amina’s mother had tried to commit suicide some months after her daughter was seized. “I had to convince her that she just has to stay alive if she really wants her daughter returned home safe and sound,” he said.
WIPE YOUR TEARS. GOD HAS MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN.
Her father died while she was held captive, said her uncle, Yakubu Nkeki. At least 16 of the girls’ parents have died since the kidnapping. Others have ailments they blame on their ongoing trauma.
“I suffered a stroke on Friday, that’s why you don’t recognize my voice,” said Rev. Enoch Mark, whose two daughters are among the missing girls.
He said the escape of the first Chibok girl brings renewed hope.
“I believe that, by the grace of God, our daughters, some of them, will be found if they are still alive.”
The military said Amina had been recovered with a four-month-old daughter named Safiya and “a suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Mohammed Hayatu, who claimed to be her husband.” Other accounts, which said the military played no role in Ali’s rescue, do not mention a man with her.
Boko Haram Islamic extremists stormed and firebombed the Government Girls Secondary School at Chibok on April 14, 2014, and seized 276 girls who were preparing to write science exams. Dozens escaped in the first hours, some by grabbing tree branches from the back of an open truck, but 219 remained missing.
The inability of Nigeria’s government and military to rescue them led, in part, to last year’s electoral defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan, who was seen as uncaring and not committed to freeing them.
The United States, France and Britain offered help to find the girls, sending drones that flew over the Sambisa Forest, hostage negotiators, intelligence officers and others.
It’s not known how many thousands of girls, boys and young women have been kidnapped by Boko Haram in a nearly seven-year-old insurgency that has killed some 20,000 people and spread across Nigeria’s borders.
Nigeria’s military has made some progress, retaking some areas that were under Boko Haram control. But a rift has developed between the people who managed to evade the group’s clutches, and those who did not, according to the New York Times.
“I will never trust them,” Adamu Isa, a market vendor, told The Times, referring to anyone who had been held by Boko Haram. “The government should detain them for the rest of their lives.”
At a meeting with refugee camp dwellers, aid workers said one man insisted that the parents of the missing schoolgirls reject their own daughters if they turn up, The Times reported.