Saa sat with other schoolgirls piled on the back of the large truck as it made its way past a Nigerian village in the dark of night.
“We are moving, we are moving, then some of our girls start jumping down from the trucks. Then I told my friend that I decided to jump down from the trucks, that I’d rather die, that my parents have my coffin buried, than to go with them because we don’t know where we are going. Then she said okay, she would jump with me.”
Saa and her friend — two of the 300 girls Boko Haram militants awakened and violently kidnapped from a Chibok boarding school on the early morning of April 15 — courageously escaped as the caravan of trucks continued down the road. Saa recounted her ordeal during a Sept. 19 panel discussion hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington and supported by the Jubilee Campaign for religious freedom. The 18-year-old Christian is a member of the Nigeria Church of the Brethren, where her father was a pastor.
Jumping from the truck, her friend injured her leg and was unable to walk. Saa helped her through the forest to a tree, where the two slept for the night.
“She can’t move, we don’t know what to do. Then I decide to go and look for help. … I went and I met a (Muslim) shepherd.” Saa asked him for help, but he expressed fear, recommending they wait along the road and seek help from others who might pass by on their way to market.
Help from a stranger
“Then we said, ‘But sir, you know that the bad people follow this way. Not any person will come to the market today because they were afraid.’ … Then he decided to help us, and he carried my friend on his bicycle.” With the farmer’s help, Saa and her friend returned to Chibok.
“When we come home, I met my parents crying. … Then after that, the time they saw me, they were happy, they were jumping, because of what’s happening.”
As many as 75 girls escaped during the days and weeks following the kidnapping, with perhaps 220 still missing. At least one of the girls has been killed as a suicide bomber, said Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian-American attorney and panelist.
Nigerian security officials are reportedly engaged in talks to free the girls, according to news reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross has assisted in talks with Nigerian security officials and Boko Haram militants to negotiate the freedom of the girls in exchange for the release of Boko Haram prisoners, The Telegraph reported Sept. 18. No deal has been reached.
Since Saa escaped within 24 hours of being kidnapped, she was not able to learn where the girls were being taken. But she does recall that the militants questioned some of the girls about their faith, particularly three girls who would not fit on the trucks and were allowed to walk back home.
Within a month of the kidnapping, Boko Haram released a video of girls dressed in Muslim “hijabs,” or headscarves, who were reportedly the same girls kidnapped from Chibok.
“Yes they were Christian girls, because the one that stand at the front, she was a Christian, and she was … in our FCS (Fellowship of Christian Students),” Saa said, her eyes tearing.
Boko Haram is adopting ISIS tactics, said Nina Shea, director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.
“As far as the killings go … they’re occurring on a constant basis as Boko Haram becomes more well-armed and grows,” Shea said. “The Catholic Bishop (Oliver) Doeme of Borno (was quoted) as saying that there is clear confirmation that Islamization is occurring in northeastern Nigeria and probably with the intent of targeting all of Nigeria.
“What is going on is very brutal religious cleansing and it’s occurring as we speak.”
Editor’s Note — Saa’s name changed for security reasons.
(BP)
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