“He was a huge man in his mid-30s and I had never had sex before. It was very painful and I cried bitterly because I was bleeding afterwards.”
These were the words of a 19-year-old girl among five other female victims kidnapped by the Boko Haram insurgents in 2013 and held hostage for three weeks in their camp until she luckily escaped.
Narrating their ordeal during the horrible days under the captivity of the terrorists, the girls disclosed that they were forcefully married to the Boko Haram commanders and subsequently raped, tortured, psychological abused and forced to join the Islamic religion as well.
This was contained in reports captioned, ‘Those Terrible Weeks in Their Camp: Boko Haram Violence against Women and Girls in North-East Nigeria.’which was released by Human Rights Watch on Monday, October 27, 2014, after separate interviews with the victims.
Part of the 63-page report reads, “Women and girls abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram are forced to marry, convert, and endure physical and psychological abuse, forced labor, and rape in captivity.”
“The group has abducted more than 500 women and girls since 2009, and intensified abductions since May 2013, when Nigeria imposed a state of emergency in areas where Boko Haram is most active.”
The 19-year old victim revealed that she moved in to live with the commander in a cave after she was forcefully married to the commander during those terrible days.
Furthermore, the HRW reports said, “They and many others they saw in the camps were subjected to physical and psychological abuse; forced labour; forced participation in military operations, including carrying ammunition or luring men into ambush; forced marriage to the captors; and sexual abuse, including rape.”
“In addition, they were made to cook, clean and perform other household chores. Others served as porters, carrying the loot stolen by the insurgents from villages and towns they had attacked.”
The second victim among the other five, a 15-year old girl narrated that she was also compelled to marry a member of the sect who was far older than her.
She said, “After we were declared married I was ordered to live in his cave but I always managed to avoid him. He soon began to threaten me with a knife to have sex with him, and when I still refused he brought out his gun, warning that he would kill me if I shouted. Then he began to rape me every night. He was a huge man in his mid-30s and I had never had sex before. It was very painful and I cried bitterly because I was bleeding afterwards.”
Another 19-year-rape victim said: “I could not tell anyone what happened, not even my husband. I still feel so ashamed and cheated.”
Furthermore, another woman with her, who was also raped, “vowed never to speak of it again as she was single and believes that news of her rape would foreclose her chances of marriage.”
Also narrating the heartbreaking experience was an aged woman who said,, “I was dragged to the camp leader who told me the reason I was brought to the camp was because we Christians worship three gods. When I objected to his claim, he tied a rope around my neck and beat me with a plastic cable until I almost passed out. An insurgent, who I recognised from my village convinced me to accept Islam, lest I should be killed. So I agreed.”
However, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Daniel Bekele said, “Now the Nigerian government and its allies need to step up their efforts to put an end to these brutal abductions and provide for the medical, psychological, and social needs of the women and girls who have managed to escape.”
“The survivors of Boko Haram’s violence should not be shamed and frightened into silence. It is Boko Haram that should be ashamed of the abuses they commit against women and girls in their extreme interpretation of religious text,” Bekele opined.
See the video of the narration below:
