Tag: boko haram

Women taken hostage in the Sambisa Forest opened fire on soldiers who tried to rescue them, it was learnt yesterday.

The women – apparently forced by the terror sect into acting as conscripts – shot at the unsuspecting troops when they staged an operation to free them from the remote village of Nbita in the Northeast last week.

Seven soldiers were killed in the ensuing gunfight, in which a dozen of the women also died, according to officials who spoke to the Associated Press (AP) on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

The captive women were among nearly 700 women and girls who have been rescued from Boko Haram hideouts in the vast Sambisa forest  in recent days.

They are now being looked after at the Malkohi Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs’) camp, outside Yola, where many are showing signs of severe trauma and exhaustion. They were taken into the camp on Saturday after the military released them to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

 A number of the children also have distended stomachs and tinted orange hair – which are signs of malnutrition.

Government officials said the women were being used as cooks, sex slaves and human shields in the Boko Haram camps.

 Many are believed to have been abducted during raids on villages in which hundreds of menfolk were killed.

“Boko Haram killed the father of this child,” sobbed Lami Musa, a mother of four who was cradling a four-day-old girl at one displaced persons’ camp. “I have no idea where my other children are.”

Many of the hostages were in such a distressed state when they were found that they had no idea whether their rescuers meant them good or harm.

Government officials are trying to determine where the women and children are from.

“Based on registration we have carried out so far, none of them is from Chibok,” said Zakari Abubakar, an official of NEMA.

Ms Musa’s four-day-old baby was born the day before her group set off from the Sambisa Forest area for a refugee camp in Yola, crammed into the backs of rickety, open pick-up trucks.

On the trip’s first day, one military vehicle escorting the group exploded a landmine, wounding two soldiers, according to a soldier travelling with them.

Boko Haram has been on the back foot militarily in recent months, having previously controlled an area of north-east Nigeria almost the size of Belgium.

The tide turned in the past nine weeks with a new infusion of armoury, including helicopter gunships, and a coalition with troops from neighboring countries.

The military has spent days “processing” and trying to identify the women and children, as they receive medical and psychological care.

A total of 22 of the group were dispatched immediately to a hospital in town due to their condition. Dr Mohammed Auwal said that many were suffering from malaria, diarrohea and malnutrition.

Almost 300 children and women arrived at the displaced persons’ camp in Yola after a three-day journey to safety.

The military has said it liberated 677 girls and women and destroyed more than a dozen insurgent camps.

The women arrived at the camp in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, on the back of open pick-up trucks.

 One of the rescued women at the Malkohi Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs’) Camp outside Yola, the Adamawa State capital, has relived their experience.

According to the Associated Press (AP), a 27-year-old woman, Lami Musa, who had just given birth at the time the troops arrived, was quoted by Associated Press (AP) as saying: “Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and said that we should run away with them. But we said ‘no’. Then they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her.

“We just have to give praise to God that we are alive, those of us who have survived.”

Boko Haram fighters killed older boys and men in front of their families before taking women and children into the forest where many died of hunger and disease, freed captives said yesterday after they were brought to a government refugee camp.

The army rescued hundreds of women and children last week from the Islamist fighters in Sambisa Forest in a major operation that has turned international attention to the plight of hostages.

After days on the road in pickup trucks, hundreds were released on Sunday into the care of authorities at a refugee camp in the eastern town of Yola to be fed and treated for injuries. They have been able to speak to reporters for the first time.

“They didn’t allow us to move an inch,” said one of the freed women, Asabe Umaru, describing her captivity in the forest. “If you needed the toilet, they followed you. We were kept in one place. We were under bondage.

“We thank God to be alive today. We thank the Nigerian Army for saving our lives,” she added.

Two hundred and seventy-five women and children, some with heads or limbs in bandages, arrived in the camp late on Saturday.

Nearly 700 kidnap victims were freed from the Islamist group’s forest stronghold since Tuesday, with the latest group of 234 women and children liberated on Friday.

“When we saw the soldiers, we raised our hands and shouted for help. Boko Haram,  which was guarding us, started stoning us so we would follow them to another hideout, but we refused because we were sure the soldiers would rescue us,” Umaru, a 24-year-old mother of two, told Reuters.

The prisoners suffered constant malnutrition and disease, she said. “Every day, we witnessed the death of one of us and waited for our turn.”

Another freed captive, Cecilia Abel, said her husband and first son had been killed in her presence before the militia forced her and her remaining eight children into the forest.

For two weeks before the military arrived she had barely eaten.

“We were fed only ground dry maize in the afternoons. It was not good for human consumption,” she said. “Many of us that were captured died in Sambisa Forest. Even after our rescue, about 10 died on our way to this place.”

Amnesty International estimates the insurgents, who are intent on bringing western Africa under Islamist rule, have taken more than 2,000 women and girls captive since the start of 2014. Many have been used as cooks, sex slaves or human shields.

The prisoners freed so far do not appear to include any of more than 200 schoolgirls snatched from school dormitories in Chibok town a year ago, an incident that drew global attention to the six-year-old insurgency.

President Barack Obama of the United State of America (USA) has approved the disbursement of $35 million in military and defence support services to France as part of Washington’s contribution to the war against the terror group, Boko Haram.

The White House said the aid is on account of the Paris active support for Nigeria’s French speaking neighbours—Niger and Chad—in their fight against Boko Haram insurgents as well as Mali, which is battling Islamic extremism.

The three French-speaking have been in the forefront of the war against Islamic terrorism.

No reference was made to Nigeria, which is the worst hit by Boko Haram’s terrorist assaults.

The outgoing Jonathan administration has not enjoyed the best of relations with President Obama over the Nigerian leader’s initial questionable response of the US to the Boko Haram menace.

Agency report yesterday said a US government official simply reaffirmed that the $35 million funding was in support of French operations, which are not taking place in Nigeria.

Some diplomats expect that once President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, assumes office on May 29, the White House will announce some new initiatives to support the overall fight against terror groups in Nigeria.

Recently at Time magazine’s 100 influential people gala in New York City, top US government officials, including Samantha Powers, promised that the US would do more to support the search for the Chibok girls and the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Titled “Delegation of Authority Under Section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961,” the White House statement noted that President Obama had authorised Secretary of State John Kerry to facilitate the US assistance to Mali, Niger and Chad, significantly omitting Nigeria, where terror groups had captured significant territories and killed thousands of people in suicide attacks and military operations.

In the White House statement, President Obama delegated to the Secretary of State “the authority under section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to direct the drawdown of up to $35 million in defense services of the Department of Defense to provide assistance to France in its efforts to secure Mali, Niger, and Chad from terrorists and violent extremists and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.”

US-Nigeria relationship on Boko Haram has been rocky, leading the Nigerian Ambassador to the US openly stating the American government had not given Nigeria the needed support especially in the area of weapons.

The US government refused to sell US-made Cobra fighter-helicopters to Nigeria.

It was gathered that even when Nigeria decided to purchase the helicopters from Israel, Washington declined to give its consent for the deal to sail through.

Under the terms of US-Israeli ties, the Israeli government cannot transfer the military helicopters to a third country unless the US government okayed the transaction.

A US military training of a unit of the Nigerian military was also abruptly ended late last year as the Americans said Nigeria asked for the training to stop.