Twelve years after the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Chibok, survivors are recounting their painful experiences in captivity, offering a sobering reminder of one of Nigeria’s most tragic incidents.
The mass abduction, carried out in April 2014, drew global outrage and sparked sustained advocacy campaigns by civil society organisations, eventually leading to the release of some of the girls.
While a number managed to escape on their own, others regained freedom through negotiations and persistent pressure on authorities.
One of the survivors, in a testimony shared by global human rights organisation, the Amnesty International Nigeria on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, recounted the trauma she endured during her time in captivity.
“I am one of the abducted Chibok girls. It was painful to be separated from my parents. My captors did a lot of things to me and the other girls. We were beaten, shouted at – there’s nothing that they didn’t do to us. While they didn’t force us to marry them, what they did to us was worse. We were just managing till God saved us. I had to fetch water, sweep the grounds and do a lot of things women are not supposed to do. It made me feel bad,” she said.
The survivor described the overwhelming relief she felt upon learning she would be released, likening the moment to a heavenly experience.
“I cannot even describe how happy I felt the day I learnt I was to be released. I felt like I was in heaven,” she added.
Following her return, she said reintegration into normal life came with its own challenges, particularly the fear of returning to school. To cope, she transferred to a different school closer to her family.
“Since my release, I have returned to school. I was scared to go back at first, so I changed schools to stay close to my parents – I don’t want to spend another minute without them. I have now graduated from secondary school,” she said.
Despite her progress, the survivor expressed deep concern for those still believed to be in captivity, noting that the memories of their ordeal remain vivid.
“When I was in the hands of Boko Haram, I missed everything. I feel very sad for the girls who are still in captivity. My hope is that they regain freedom like us. We know what it was like in there, so that’s why I want them to be free, so they can be with their parents,” she said.
More than a decade on, the Chibok abduction continues to resonate both within Nigeria and internationally, symbolising the enduring human cost of insurgency in the country’s northeast and the long road to healing for survivors and their families.
In September 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) revealed that Nigeria is responsible for grave and systematic violations of women’s and girls’ rights amid multiple mass abductions.
The Committee in a report released on Wednesday, said that at least 1400 students have been kidnapped from schools since the Chibok abduction in 2014.
The abduction of the Chibok girls was not an isolated tragedy, but part of a series of mass abductions targeting schools and communities across northern Nigeria,” said Nahla Haidar, Chair of the Committee.
“While such attacks had started earlier, Chibok marked the beginning of increased international attention of a decade-long pattern of mass abduction.”
The Committee’s inquiry report was published after a two-week confidential visit to Nigeria in December 2023. During the mission, the CEDAW delegation visited Nigeria’s capital Abuja and different states, including Adamawa, Borno, Enugu, and Kaduna. According to school staff, they were the first UN delegation to have visited Chibok Government Secondary School since the mass abduction in 2014.
