End of Boko Haram? (MUST READ)
Category: Boko Haram News
MALKOHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Boko Haram is fracturing as shortages of
weapons and fuel foment tensions between its foot soldiers and leaders,
women rescued from the Islamist jihadi fighters by Nigerian troops told
Reuters.
The group abducted an estimated 2,000 women and girls
last year as it sought to carve out an Islamic state in the northeast of
Africa’s biggest economy. The army has freed nearly 700 in the past
week as it advances on Boko Haram's last stronghold in the vast Sambisa
forest.
The militants began complaining to their captives about
lacking guns and ammunition last month, two of the women said, and many
were reduced to carrying sticks while some of their vehicles were
A 45-year old mother of two,
Aisha Abbas, who was taken from Dikwa in April, said the fighters all
had guns at first but recently, only some carried them.
Even the
wife of their captors' leader, Adam Bitri, openly criticized him and
subsequently fled, two of the women said, with one describing Bitri as
short and fat with a beard.
Of 275 freed captives brought to a
government-run camp for internally displaced people in the Malkohi
hamlet on the outskirts of Adamawa state capital, Yola, only 61 were
over 18, and many small children hobbled around visibly malnourished.
The
women said they were kept inside, occasionally brought food and
sometimes beaten severely. The children were left to run around or do
errands for Boko Haram while those of the fighters were trained to shoot
guns.
“One evening in April, Boko Haram followers stood before
us and said ‘Our leaders don’t want to give us enough fuel and guns and
now the soldiers are encroaching on us in Sambisa. We will leave you.’”
one of the women, 18-year old Binta Ibrahim from northern Adamawa state
said.
“They threatened us but after they went we were happy and prayed the soldiers would come and save us.”
CRUSHED
The
women said once the militants spotted two helicopters circling at noon
on the day of their rescue, they began trying to sell the women for up
to 2,000 naira (about $10) each. Towards evening, as the army
approached, the captives refused to flee with Boko Haram fighters, who
began stoning them but then ran away.
"We heard bullets flying
around ... we lay on the floor. Some of the women were crushed (by army
vehicles) and others wounded by bullets. Eighteen were killed. We
counted them, they included infants," Salamatu Mohamed from the Damboa
area in Borno said. The defence ministry was not immediately available
for comment.
Mohamed said she gave birth while in captivity and had trouble feeding her newborn as there was not enough food.
Boko
Haram seemed almost unstoppable and fast becoming a regional threat
after it gained control of an area larger than Belgium last year and
increased cross-border attacks on Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Its
six-year-old insurgency has killed thousands and forced 1.5 million
people from their homes and the group caused a global outcry when it
abducted over 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.
The women
said the men frequently threatened to sell them or bring them to Boko
Haram’s elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau, deep in the forest. Nigeria has
claimed to have killed him several times. Defence spokesman Chris
Olukolade told Reuters the man was not a priority target.
Hanatu
Musa, a 22-year old mother kidnapped in June from Gwoza in Borno state,
quoted the fighters as saying their leader had deceived them into
fighting and killing in the name of religion.
While the Nigerian
army, which launched its counter-attack in January, is confident it has
the group cornered in the Sambisa nature reserve, a final push to clear
them from the area has been curtailed by landmines.
None of the women
interviewed had seen any of the Chibok girls, but Abbas said fighters
who travelled from a camp in Sambisa where they were held to source food
would describe the situation.
"They said the Chibok girls were
married off this year. Some sold to slavery, then others (militants)
each married two or four of the girls," Abbas said.
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