There were claims by the Government that there was a ceasefire agreement for the release of 219 schools that were kidnapped by Boko Haram,but this has not stop continuous kidnapping and we begin to doubt the efficacy of the news been spread.When will this saga end and when will peace reign once more in Nigeria,Only Time will tell! Boko Haram has used kidnapped young women and girls on the front lines of
its insurgency, according to a new report published on Monday, after a fresh
abduction in Nigeria’s
far northeast.
Human Rights Watch made the claim as it outlined testimony from dozens of
former hostages who documented physical and psychological abuse at the hands of
the militants.
Suspected Islamist fighters kidnapped about 30 children, including girls as
young as 11, in Borno state at the weekend. A week earlier, at least 40 women
and girls were seized in neighbouring Adamawa.
In the human rights report, one 19-year-old woman who was held in militant
camps for three months last year said she was forced to participate in Boko
Haram attacks.
“I was told to hold the bullets and lie in the grass while they fought. They
came to me for extra bullets as the fight continued during the day,” she said.
“When security forces arrived at the scene and began to shoot at us, I fell
down in fright. The insurgents dragged me along on the ground as they fled back
to camp.”
In another operation, she said she was handed a knife to kill one of five
captured civilian vigilantes brought to one of the camps and summarily
executed.
“I was shaking with horror and couldn’t do it. The camp leader’s wife took the
knife and killed him,” she said.
A wave of attacks by female suicide bombers earlier this year prompted
speculation that Boko Haram may have been using abducted women and young girls
to carry out attacks.
But there has been no concrete evidence to prove whether the attackers were
kidnap victims who were coerced or volunteers.
In July, a 10-year-old was detained in Katsina state, northwest Nigeria, and
found to be strapped with explosives.
– Forced marriage, conversion –
In all, 30 women and girls between April 2013 and April this year were
interviewed, including 12 of the 57 who fled when the militants raided a school
in Chibok, Borno state, taking away the 219 others.
The women, who were held from between two days to three months, were seized
from their homes and villages, while working on the land, fetching water or at
school.
They described how they were held in eight different camps thought to be in
the vast Sambisa Forest
area of Borno and the Gwoza hills, which separates Nigeria
from Cameroon.
Human Rights Watch said more than 500 women and girls have been abducted
since the start of the insurgency in 2009, although other estimates put the
figure in the high hundreds.
Source: Vanguard
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