In April 2014, the armed terrorist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls from their school dormitories in Chibok, Nigeria. Since then it has been a long, tiring battle with more downs, than ups.
Yesterday, however, the story concerning these girls took a turn for the better as one of the girls, identified as Amina Ali Nkeki, was rescued in the Sambisa forest area, close to the Nigerian border with Cameroon.
According to a source in Chibok, Amina said she was rescued by a group of vigilantes who were carrying out their daily duties around specific parts in the Sambisa forest. She mentioned to security officials, after her rescue, that they saw her with a man, holding a baby and then made the move to capture both of them. When she said she was one of the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, they immediately took her and her baby to Chibok.
The people of Chibok were, reportedly, very surprised to see her and celebrations followed once it was announced that she was one of Boko Haram’s victims. Then she was taken to her village, Mbalala, a few miles from the town of Chibok. Here, she was reunited with her mother (her only living parent) and after many tears and prayers of thanks; she narrated her ordeal in the hands of Boko Haram. Amina revealed that she was found with a man she was forced to marry, when she was asked if he was a member of the Boko Haram sect, she denied, saying that members of the insurgency also captured him from a nearby village in Borno. She mentioned that the other girls were still alive in the forest, except for 6 who died very early on during their ordeal. Eye witnesses report that she looked dull, as if she hadn’t been fed well in the last few months, but her baby looked very healthy.
Amina is now with the governor of Borno state who has said he will take her to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory to meet with the president of the country. Authorities in Abuja have also sent a helicopter to transport her mother to Abuja so she can be with her daughter during this time. Details on the man she was forced to marry are still unclear as some report that he has been taken into custody while others are unsure of his whereabouts.
There are a few questions surrounding Amina’s rescue, but more prominent are these two; How would she be re-integrated into society? And what is the fate of the remaining Chibok girls still at the mercy of Boko Haram? While the country awaits answers to these questions, there is a general aura of positivity, a new found hope regarding the situation concerning the remaining girls and restored belief that they will be found as well.
