Chibok girl abducted 10 years ago by insurgents says she did not want to escape until now: ‘I trekked for days before getting to a military checkpoint where they took me and my children in’.

A 27-year-old “Chibok girl” – one of 276 female pupils aged between 16 and 18 who were kidnapped by insurgents 10 years ago from the Government Girls Secondary School – has been rescued by soldiers.

Ihyi Abdu and her two children were handed over to the Borno State government with 330 women and children who had been held captive by the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), more commonly referred to as Boko Haram, in the Sambisa Forest.

Addressing journalists at the headquarters of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) Theatre Command at the Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri, Brigadier-General Abubakar Haruna read a statement on behalf of Abdu, who is now three months pregnant.

She said: “I trekked for days before getting to a military checkpoint where they took me and my children in.

“I did not escape all the while because I did not want to escape until now.”

She said some of the remaining Chibok girls had chosen to remain in Sambisa “while others have not had the chance to escape”.

Haruna said Abdu was rescued on June 23 by troops of the 21 Special Armoured Brigade Bama during offensive operations conducted within the Sambisa Forest.

Abdu was number 67 on the list of the Chibok schoolgirls that was published by the federal government after the abduction. She is from the Kibaku ethnic group, a Muslim, and was originally from Kubur-Mbula village in the Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State.

“While in captivity, she was forcefully married to Boko Haram commander Abu Darda, an indigene of Plateau State, who later fled to Senegal. The marriage took place in Gwoza town in 2014. After Darda fled, she was married out to three different husbands.

“Prior to her rescue, she was married to one Bana and they resided at Garin Mustapha in Njimiya in Sambisa Forest. At the moment, she is three months pregnant.”

Haruna said that after her rescue, Abdu and her children had undergone “detailed medical examinations”.

Theatre commander Major-General Waidu Shaibu told journalists: “The theatre will continue to do its best to rescue the remaining Chibok girls in captivity in line with the strategic guidance from the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Taoreed Lagbaja.

“We thank the Chief of Army Staff for all the support being provided to the theatre which was instrumental to the successful conduct of the operations that facilitated the rescue of Ihyi Abdu from the Sambisa Forest.

“The plight of the remaining Chibok girls still in captivity continues to be captured in national headlines and here in the theatre. It has necessitated the conduct of several military operations deep into terrorist enclaves with the aim of facilitating their rescue. So far, a total of 19 Chibok girls have been rescued as a result of direct military operations.”

He gave assurances that rescue operations would continue until all the remaining Chibok girls were returned home.

While handing over the rescued captives to the Borno State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Captain Mohammed Ahmed Abdullahi, the chief military intelligence officer in charge of civil-military relations, said that of the 330, 110 were women and 220 children.

He said the captives were rescued by troops along the Dikwa and Bama axis. All were profiled and given medical check-ups. The children received polio vaccines and were treated for malaria.

Hajjiya Zuwaira Gambo, the commissioner for women affairs who was represented by Hajiya Aisha Shettima, the director of social welfare, said Abdu and the 330 rescued women and children would be taken to the Rehabilitation Centre in the Bulumkutu area of the metropolis for mental and psychosocial evaluation.

She said all efforts to trace the women’s families would be made. Apart from psychosocial support and rehabilitation, the women would receive skills acquisition training and the children would be sent to school. They would be reunited with their families as soon as possible.

Speaking on the continued surrender of the insurgents, Abdullahi said the logistics supply strangulation to insurgents introduced by the theatre commander during the rainy season was yielding dividends and would be sustained to maximum effect.

He said the key mandate of the operation was to restore normalcy in the entire northeast so that socioeconomic activities would resume in full swing.

AYSHA MUSTAPHA KOLOMI