Several women also died when they were crushed mistakenly by a Nigerian military armored car.
And three were blown up by a land mine as they were walking to freedom.
These tragic stories come from girls and women brought to a refugee camp here, still finding it hard to believe they are safe, some after more than a year in the hands of Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremists.“We just have to give praise to God that we are alive, those of us who have survived,” said 27-year-old Lami Musa as she cradled her 5-day-old baby girl.
She is among 275 children, girls and women, many bewildered and traumatized, who were getting medical care and being registered Sunday on their first day out of out of Nigeria’s war zone.
Nigeria’s military said it has freed nearly 700 Boko Haram captives in the past week. Musa was in the first group to be transported by road over three days to the safety of Malkohi refugee camp, a dust-blown deserted school set among baobab trees on the outskirts of Yola, the capital of northeastern Adamawa state.
Musa had just given birth to her yet-to-be-named babe last week when the crackle of gunfire hinted rescuers might be nearby.
“Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and said that we should run away with them. But we said no,” she explained from a bed in the camp clinic.
No comments:
Post a Comment