Two of the Chibok girls who recently escaped from Boko Haram’s captivity say more than 20 of their colleagues are still in Sambisa Forest.
Mary Dauda and Hauwa Joseph told a news conference in Maiduguri on Tuesday that the girls are in Gazuwa camp, the acclaimed headquarters of a Boko Haram faction known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah Wa’l-Jihād.
The camp is located about nine kilometres from Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.
Marry recalled her compulsory marriage in 2014 when she was abducted at the age of 18.
She was told that she would be hunted down and killed if she escaped.
The threat didn’t deter her as she walked for many days through the forest before she found help.
“I took excuse from Mallam Ahmed, that I will be visiting my relative from Chibok in the town of Ngoshe and he gave me one week.
“That was when I began my journey for freedom.
“I left Sabil Huda, popularly known as the camp of Abubakar Shekau, and proceeded towards Njimiya and Parisu, where I met some of the Mujahideens.
“They asked where I was going to and I told them I was permitted to visit my sister in Ngoshe.
“I finally arrived at Gava village in Gwoza, after walking for many hours through the deadly forest under hard conditions.
“I asked some people to direct me to the home of the daughter of Chibok.
“After meeting her, I told her of my plans to return home, she told me she had wanted to come with me but her husband had placed her on strict surveillance for attempting to run.
“I then left her and proceeded toward Ngoshe town. On my way, I met an old man who promised to help me to escape.
“But he told me that it won’t be possible in the afternoon until the sun had set.
“At about 8 pm, he took me to Ngoshe town and told me to pass the night on the outskirt of the town and proceed the following morning.
“When the day broke, I took myself to some soldiers where I was rescued with my baby,” she said.
Hauwa Joseph, on the other hand, was forcefully married to Amir Abbah, a Boko Haram commander who was later killed by the Nigerian Army.
She said she voluntarily escaped during an army raid on the terrorists’ camp in Gazuwa on 12 June.
“I slept under the tree with my child, then proceeded the next day until I arrived at the road where I approached a military checkpoint.
“Initially, they thought I was a suicide bomber, but when I explained myself, they took me along with them,” she said.
The news conference took place at the Command and Control Centre of the Nigerian Army’s Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri.
The Theatre Commander of “Operation Hadin Kai North East Joint Operation,” Maj. Gen. Christopher Musa said the army was working to rescue the remaining Chibok girls from captivity.
Mary and Hauwa escaped between 12 – 14 June and have both received medical attention.
They are among the 276 schoolgirls abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014.
They were aged between 16 and 18 years.
