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 told Reuters on Sunday after they were brought to a refugee camp in Yola, Adamawa State.
The Nigerian 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 Yola, to be fed and treated for injuries. They spoke 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. “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 have been 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 who were 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 malnutrition and disease, she said. “Every day we witnessed the death of one of us and waited for our turn,” Mrs. Umaru added.
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 West 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.
Umaru said her group of prisoners never came in contact with the missing Chibok girls.
Meanwhile, the 23 Armoured Brigade of the Nigerian Army based in Yola, Adamawa State, has handed over 275 women and children rescued from insurgents in Sambisa Forest to the National Emergency Management Agency for rehabilitation.
The statement quoted the Commander, 23 Armoured Brigade, Col. Aba Popoola, as saying that “on behalf of the Nigerian Army, I want to hand over 275 rescued women and children that we rescued from Sambisa Forest to the National Emergency Management Agency for care and welfare.”
Receiving the rescued persons, the Director-General, NEMA, Sani Sidi, said the rescued women and children needed special attention and that the agency had made all the necessary arrangements with relevant stakeholders for trauma counselling.
Ghuluze noted that the ministry had ensured regular supply of drugs to the clinics.
