ICC Note: It has been nearly a year since the kidnapping of over 270 mainly Christian schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. Though at least 219 are still unaccounted for, some have managed to escape their captors. Many of those who have escaped have since reported their experiences of violence, captivity and abuse.
By Dale Hurd
02/12/2015 Nigeria (Christian Broadcasting Network) – It’s been more than 300 days since Islamic terrorists with the group Boko Haram snatched more than 270 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria in the dead of night.
Despite a worldwide outcry and military action, most of the girls are still missing. But some have managed to escape.
“They told us that if we do not convert to Islam they will slit our throats. They asked the healthy ones to perform the (Islamic) rites while we, the sick ones, did not perform the rites,” 15-year-old Abigail John, who was held by Boko Haram for more than four weeks, said.
John was among three girls who recently escaped from Boko Haram. She had worried she would never see freedom again.
“The way they spoke to us, they had no intention of releasing us,” she said. “They said we would be married off as soon as we got well and that they would marry us to their members who were single. We never thought we would regain our freedom.”
Twenty-year-old Dorcas Aiden was held captive for two weeks last September. She admitted that she denied her Christian faith and pretended to become Muslim, to stay alive.
She described what she witnessed in captivity.
“They are teaching (girls) Islamic (religion), some say they are married, then they are saying that they are training them (to fight),” she said.
“And they are showing us inside (on) the laptop (videos) everyday, and they are showing us the way they are killing people, killing soldiers,” she continued. “And they say if they catch you ladies, they will marry the ladies, and if they catch a man, they will kill the man.”
The local priest, Father Maurice Kwairanga, has been helping these girls.
