A
little girl whose family was traumatized by the deadly Boko Haram
insurgent sect, has recounted the horrific encounter she had with the
terrorists.
Halima, 16, who was snatched by insurgents and forced to marry one of them after they slaughtered her family
Halima, a 16-year-old Nigerian girl has revealed how her family were slaughtered by Islamic insurgents.
She was thereafter forced to marry one of them.
According to Daily Mail, Halima,
16, who already has a young son called Ali, was seized from her
family's farm after the extremists killed her father and husband before
shooting dead her mother.
After fleeing her captors, she now lives in a large refugee camp
with her young son and her newborn baby in Maiduguri, the capital of
Borno.
It comes as award winning actor David Oyelowo and U2 frontman Bono
warn of an unfolding humanitarian disaster in the heart of Africa with
tens of thousands of children facing starvation as they flee the
Islamist militants behind the kidnap of Nigerian schoolgirls.
In an unusual move, the stars have joined international agencies in
highlighting the plight of children and their families trapped in North
East Nigeria as donors meet in Switzerland to try and agree emergency
funding for what agencies say is a ‘forgotten crisis’.
And speaking of her plight, Halima said: 'They killed my father and husband, then tied my mother to a tree and eventually shot her.
‘When they had killed everyone else they told me to come with
them. I resisted so they threatened me with a gun. They tied my hands
and tied me to a tree.
‘They told me I would get married to one of them. I told them I
never would after they had killed my family. They told me I had no
choice. I was married two days later. I didn’t even know who he was. I
didn’t even see him during the ceremony.
'From when I was married all of the other men turned their
backs on me as it is forbidden for them to look at another man’s wife.
‘The houses were like tents made with thatch. Ali and I were
left alone in the house for one week. They gave me food but I didn’t
speak to anyone apart from Ali the whole time.
'All I could think was that my family was dead and I had
no-one. The women were all kept in their tents and no-one was allowed to
see each other.’
She continued: ‘Eventually I became pregnant. When I was eight
months pregnant came the news that my husband had been killed in the
fighting, and they brought his clothes to me. Soon after, I heard the
sounds of war and I knew it was the military. Others ran to the bush,
but I ran towards them.
'The military were surprised and asked why I didn’t run away. I
said I had been waiting for this moment. They gave me bread and water
and took me away. Eventually they brought back the other women as well.
‘I hadn’t been allowed to leave the house for a whole year before this point. I gave birth in the first place they took me.’
‘Apart from what Save the Children gave me nothing here is
mine. Even the cooking pot is borrowed. I need a trade. But at least I
have my two children – they make me happy.
‘Fatimah is now three months. Sometimes my breast milk doesn’t flow so I mix sugar in warm water and give that to her.
‘I think about my time with the insurgents a lot. When I see
men approach I get scared, and when I hear loud noises I’m afraid people
are coming for me again.’
The area of Borno and North East Nigeria has been devastated by
conflict and is the heartland of the brutal Boko Harem, the Islamist
group responsible for a wave of bombings, assassinations, rapes and
abductions as it fights to overthrow the government and create an
Islamic state.
The group, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the US,
shocked the world in April 2014 when it kidnapped more than 200 children
from Chibok town in Borno state, saying it would treat them as slaves
and marry them off. Most are still missing.
But while their case has received international coverage with
outraged celebrities and politicians backing campaigns for their
release, the tragedy engulfing hundreds of thousands of families and
children have gone virtually unnoticed.
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