A girl kidnapped by Boko Haram for 27 months told her
shocking story to 1Q4 news ..Meenah Dawah(real name withheld for
security reasons) says she has a baby which may belong to Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.She was kidnapped at 17 after being
forced to watch her parents being shot dead by the dreaded sect in
her village in Konduga town, northern Nigeria.
While in captivity, she had to care for children born to Boko
Haram commanders and members, and would tremble in fear as she
heard girls scream as they were raped, and in some cases watch how
girls were tortured for refusing to change their faith. She described
how on occasions some top leaders of Boko Haram would come, and
she was asked to entertain them.
It was on such visits she insists that Abubakar Shekau, Nigeria’s
most wanted man, and Boko Haram leader, slept with her...She
said.....
“He would just appear from nowhere like a ghost.He seems to
be panicking all the time and issuing instructions. He is a
softly spoken man – it is almost as if he whispers, if you are
meeting him for the first time, you would never be scared of
him.
But I soon learned that after every whisper something
dangerous would happen somewhere in Nigeria.Depending on
the camp, some of the camps have everything, electricity,
water and television, with different kind of electronics.He once
asked me if I was willing to fight for the cause, to which I
answered no, he told me I could be a fighter and a domestic
slave. I didn’t want to speak to him in case what I said
offended him.All it would take was one wrong word and he
would have had me killed. I thought he was drinking or
taking something whenever he came, one could notice maybe he
lost men or something was not right.We moved a lot and
depending on the camp, my role varied, it was so tough
travelling around with a baby strapped to my back. Abu has
many kids from many different women.Some of us women
would go to Maiduguri to buy things when we have shortage,
and a commander or two would follow us, and we acted as
decoy when villages are ambushed.I’d be sent in to talk to
people, then they’d move in behind me and start killing.Some
of us girls would also have to carry guns, and often bombs too,
there was this girl, she was forced to carry a rocket-propelled
grenade launcher on her shoulder, then we had few men in that
particular camp."
Meenah managed to escape when she was badly wounded by a bullet,
after the Nigerian army attacked their camp. She was left for
dead.The bullet in her leg was only recently removed at the
University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Borno State.
She has an uncle as a sole surviving relative, and it has not been easy
as her uncle has not receive her warmly.
“My uncle will not have me because he is ashamed of my child
whose paternity is not only questionable but is dangerous if it
is Shekau.Before my parents were shot in the attack on our
village, my dad had made plans for me to go and finish my
secondary school in Government Girl Secondary School Shaffa,
where we have a distant relative, but she was also killed in an
attack on her way back from a market in that area.I know I
am intelligent and willing to learn, but where do I start
from?"
