While the rest of the world marks 16-day gender activism, they are trapped in a different world where being a girl meant having no voice or susceptible to abuse, molestation and denial.
Unlike their counterparts outside of their immediate region, many women and young girls, including kidnapped Chibok school girls who are victims of Boko Haram insurgency in North Eastern Nigeria live a life that paints a grim picture in a crisis whose full scale of destruction, displacement and death is hard to fathom.
The last eight years has been hellish for most teenage girls in the North East. Jinkai Yama, 26, was forced out of her school alongside 243 other students of Chibok Secondary School in a violent abduction by Boko Haram insurgents in April 2014. They were taken captive in the dreaded Sambisa Forest by the Islamic terrorists. More than eight years later, Yama is now privileged to be reunited with her family through efforts of the Nigerian Army, but not without after having three children fathered by two Boko Haram fighters.
The eldest of her children is 5-year-old, and the youngest six months above 1-year. The bond between them is strong even though the next meal cannot be guaranteed, less talk about proper clothing. She carried her three kids on two hours walk to freedom in the closest military outfit to her abode in the forest some two months ago. In her experience, compliance to sexual affair with the notorious fighters from hell is non-negotiable. She told me that resistance is an acceptance to be battered, held at gunpoint and raped. Such is the experience of the many girls and women in Boko Haram captivity.
Despite the visible challenges, Yama told this reporter that she remains eternally grateful to the military for ensuring the safe rescue of her and the three kids. With her life bowed down in desolation by the nasty experience of eight years, Yama still looks fixated on her goals of becoming an advocate of Wester education, an ideology her captors say is against Islamic tenets. “Despite my unenviable ordeal in the hands of men I love to hate, I hope for a better future for me and my children,” she said, looking unfaced. She only hopes to further her education.
Her innocence is not only to the extent that she does not know her “husband” more than his first name, Usman. She met Usman on the day she was eloped to him after her abduction from bunk bed in Chibok. She lived with him inside Dutsen Gaba area of Gwoza local government. Their daughter is now five years.
The infighting within Boko Haram that led to the creation of ISIS affiliated Islamic State’s West African Province (ISWAP) and eventual death of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau which also saw Usman pitching tent with ISWAP group left young Yama a sex toy to be inherited by another brutal, merciless and uncaring Abubakar, a commander in the Shekau group.
From the practical abuse of the teenage mother, Abubakar now has two more girls that are now left for the authorities to care for. As it stands, she doesn’t know the whereabout of both men. “I hate them,” she said.
The North East is replete with history of women and children who came in a jiffy and are now either widowed or orphaned by the terrorists who kill, maim and destroy for fun.
Most victims of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists in the region now see life through the lens of the renowned philosopher, Thomas Hobbes – solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Yama is not alone. Kauna Luka is also one of the 14 Chibok girls recovered from the terrorists between 2021 and this year. For her, the reality of being alive with one’s offspring is something to cheer about. She said except for the military and other security agencies operating in the North East, the situation would have been worse.
25-year-old Luka lived in Ukuba, a location within Sambisa Forest from 2014 till this year when she was rescued in a military operation alongside her sister Hanatu Musa who was also in captivity. She was forcefully married to a Boko Haram commander, Mohammad after two years of entry into the forest. She had two kids for him: Mohammad and Maryam in the five years of their marriage.
Against insinuation in some quarters that the security agencies were engaging in unprofessional conducts in the war zone North East, Luka said she would rather commend the military “for their care and kindness. She said they were treated humanely. “My daughter Maryam even looked happier when we were taken by the military from Sambisa Forest to Maiduguri,” she said. Her only ambition is to have the government come to her aid to be able to complete her secondary school education.
While the carnage continues for Boko Haram and its rival group – ISWAP, it is still difficult to ascertain which is worst of all; continual fear, danger of violent death or being a refugee in one’s own home?
Most of the victims of the insurgency ravaging the entire North East, including women, children and repentant terrorists in government facilities that were interviewed by this reporter on a recent visit to the state say it is better to be in government provided camps to sleep with two eyes closed and proper medicare, feeding and clothing than to spend a night with the terrorists. Indeed, great havoc has been wrecked on the region with a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The window for Nigeria to import arms and some fighter jets from China in recent time is making significant impact. The heat is now more on the insurgents as their logistics are cut from both sides of Nigeria and other neighbouring countries under the international military joint task force. That may be one of the major reasons for massive lay down of arms by the insurgents in recent time.
From July 2021 till November 2022, a total of 82,064 Boko Haram fighters with members of their families have surrendered to troops of operation Hadin Kai, a military joint task force in charge of the North East. Out of this number, 16,553 were active male fighters, 24,446 were women, while 41,065 were children.
Within four months (July to October), the government hospital at Hajj Camp, a rehabilitation centre in Maiduguri has taken deliveries of at least 262 children who were given birth to by wives of former fighters of Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Some of the repentant terrorists live in makeshift buildings in the government managed camp with their wives and children where normal family affairs take place. Child birth is a frequent occurrence in the four Maiduguri rehabilitation centres that were established by the state government in 2021 for deradicalisation of the terrorists that have surrendered to Nigerian troops.
The figure of new born babies in the camp alone comprises of 150 females and 112 males. A breakdown of the figure shows that in July this year, 94 babies were delivered at the facility, with 98 delivered in August, 60 in September and 11 in October, according to official data.
Dr Mohammed Sale who is in charge of the medical facility in the National Hajj Camp made the disclosure during an investigative tour of the facility.
Asked about records of casualties in the camp, Dr Sale said the hospital has not recorded any case of maternal mortality or abortion in the camp, saying such critical cases are usually referred to the state owned Umoru Shehu Specialist Hospital and University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
As at November 11, 2022, the total number of people in the camp was 14,804. 5,200 of the total male population were terrorist fighters that have killed countless people across the North-East states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. The number increases on regular basis.
Out of that, 3,427 live with their wives in the camp, while 1,773 are single. There are a total of 4,443 spouses in the camp alone. That is aside those in the other three camps within the state. There are 5,170 children in the Hajj Camp, with male children numbering 2,691 and females: 2,479.
Special adviser on security to Borno State governor, Brigadier-general Abdullahi Sabi Ishaq (rtd) said over 3,500 ex-fighters have been reintegrated with their families by the government.
A total of 11 of the Chibok girls were rescued this year 2022. Hauwa Joseph with her child, Mary Dauda with her child, and Ruth Bitrus were rescued in June 2022. Troops also rescued Kauna Luka with her child and Hanatu Musa with her 2 children in July 2022.
In the same vein, Aisha Grema with her 4-year-old child and Falmata Lawal were rescued in August 2022. Furthermore, Asabe Ali with her child, Jinkai Yama with her 3 children, Yana Pogu with her 4 children and Rejoice Senki with her 2 children were rescued in September and November this year. The names of the rescued girls are in Serials 18, 46, 41, 38, 7, 11, 3, 12, 20, 19 and 70 respectively (in the order of rescue) in the list of the abducted Chibok School girls.
The rescued girls were handed over to the Borno State government for rehabilitation.
Bulumkutu Interim Care Centre tagged: ‘From Release to Reintegration’ is a rehabilitation centre accommodating the Chibok girls. A visit to the centre revealed that two more Chibok girls have been rescued with their children, making the number of the Chibok girls in the Centre to be 13.
The centre also houses 118 children referred to as unaccompanied children. They were recovered by the Nigerian Army personnel in the bush at different times without a trace of their parents or guardians. They are believed to have been separated from their parents/relatives due to fog of war.
Borno State commissioner for women affairs and social development Zuwaira Gambo said the welfare of the Chibok girls with their children and the unaccompanied children, is a major priority of the Borno State government. United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is assisting the centre in tracing the relatives of the Chibok girls as well as those of the unaccompanied/separated children
Since 2013, the Nigerian military and other security agencies have been fighting the war against the insurgents who the Shehu of Borno, Dr Abubakar Umar Garbai says are migrants from neighbouring countries on a mission to kill the peaceful nature of the ancestral people of Kanuri, the natural inhabitants of the state.
Findings by this reporter in a recent visit to the theater of command, specifically Borno State and indeed, other parts of the North East showed a picture of a region that has been severely beaten and battered by insurgency. From Yobe to Adamawa and Borno which is the epicenter, the war has very little to be desired.
For instance, Borno State has obviously lost its position as leading state in fish production both from inland fisheries and aquaculture. Other mineral deposits, including gold are now out of the rich of government.
Theatre Commander of the North East joint task force, Operation Hadin Kai Major-general Christopher Musa says the military in union with other stakeholders is winning the war against terror, pointing to successes recorded in recent times.
The military has a Joint Investigation Centre (JIC) in Giwa Barack where captured terrorists (men and women) are being processed to determine their level of complicity in the heinous crimes committed by the Boko Haram terrorist group.
There were 1,952 persons in the facility, which included 23 women with 11 children who remain attached to their mothers as at 30 November 2022. There is also a medical facility being run by the centre in collaboration with medical staff of International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).
Musa said the welfare of all the occupants at the JIC is thus highly prioritised, including basic education for the children, tailoring and hat-making skills acquisition for the adults as well as provision of recreational and sporting facilities for all the occupants.
He appealed to Nigerians to take ownership of the war against the terrorists to be able to free up the space for economic growth and development.
NGOs keep mum
However successful the kinetic and non-kinetic measures of the military and other security agencies have been, most of the foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) obviously have reservations that are not stated. The silence of the NGOs on assessment of military operations in the North East is deafening. Most disturbing is the fact that the body of humanitarian services do not have an exit plan. They simply do not expect the war to end soon. But why?
In a media chart with representatives of the 245 body of humanitarian services in Borno State last week, head of civil-military coordination at OCHA, Brian Laguardia who spoke on behalf of the entire body arrogantly refused to comment on whether the military has been found wanting with regards to women and children in the war front.
When I sort to ascertain their assessment of the military operation, especially on handling of women and children, Laguardia started by saying that “I think I’m not. And I’m concerned that maybe this group will not easily be able to address or answer all the questions that are asked here today,” he said, adding, “And that’s for a number of different reasons,” he failed to mention the reasons.
When I insisted on his comment, Laguardia said “We can’t speak. I don’t think anybody can really speak here about how the military addresses or treats women or children.” But the NGOs have been working with government to provide succor for the victims of insurgency in the North East. How come they cannot comment on operations of a “partner” in the humanitarian service?
Nigeria may need to be wary of a plot to incite a more devastating humanitarian crisis like foreign NGOs and NATO reportedly did in Afghanistan. Top military sources told me that apart from the fact that the insurgents have a high stock of foreign currencies, it’s more surprising that some of the acclaimed humanitarian workers most at times are able to get to places even the military cannot dare to thread. That gives credence to the insinuation that the war is being funded by unseen hands from parts of the world.
The director, Humanitarian Response and Sustainable Solutions James Akai however expressed satisfaction with operations of the security agencies, while hoping that the insurgency in the North East soon becomes a thing of history.
NGOs at the meeting include United Nations agencies, International NGOs and local NGOs operate in the North East, who are active in the IDP camps and other concentrations of vulnerable peoples.
They provide food, medical care and other services in collaboration with the Nigerian and Borno State governments. But the wickedness of the Reuters team members must have blinded them, shutting them off from the humanitarian realities in the North East of Nigeria. The non-for-profit bodies have direct responsibilities for the welfare of children and/or women in the crisis area.
