Chat with teen who escaped Boko Haram indoctrination

His mien exudes the naivety and innocence of his age, but his story stinks of the infamy of a militant. Nothing in his voice suggests that he will ever regret revealing his absconder status or his nauseating experiences in the training camp of the Boko Haram group.  Babangida (not real name), 14, who escaped about […]

His mien exudes the naivety and innocence of his age, but his story stinks of the infamy of a militant. Nothing in his voice suggests that he will ever regret revealing his absconder status or his nauseating experiences in the training camp of the Boko Haram group. 

Babangida (not real name), 14, who escaped about a year ago, tells the bizarre story of his abduction and forceful recruitment into the Boko Haram militia, and his escapades in the bushes of Borno as a trainee militant. 

“My connection with the militia of Muhammad Yusuf (the founder of Boko Haram) began the day we were waylaid on a return trip to Abadam. We had loaded our truck with fertilizer here in Maiduguri and delivered the commodity safely at Abadam. As we embarked on our return trip, we had reached a roundabout in Abadam town, on our way to the main road leading to Maiduguri when suddenly Yaran Malam (Malam’s boys/disciples, ‘Malam’ referring to Muhammad Yusuf) emerged from the bushes on their motorcycles and cars and waylaid us.”

“They pulled the driver down and beat him severely. On seeing this, I started reciting ‘Hasbunallahu Wa ni’imal Wakilu’ (a prayer recited by Muslims for help from Allah), and on hearing me, one of the militants told the others that they would take me along with them because I would be useful to them.

“That was how they took me to their enclave known as Kayuwa, far into the bush. Those who took me there announced to their gathering that they had brought a young boy. Soon after, I joined the militia training and was given a gun. At the settlement, there were men, women and girls. Almost all of them were married, with some pregnant or nursing babies. There were also lots of cattle and rams. We enjoyed life there and were well fed. It was like a town. They however shoot and slaughter captives at will.     

“They trained me on handling the gun – marksmanship, so that when I shoot, I don’t miss the target. They also trained me on leopard crawl on the ropes; a long rope was tied on two ends and I was taught to walk on it from one end to the other. For the shooting at target, a caricature of a soldier was erected at a safe distance, and then I was taught to shoot at it without missing. That meant wherever we saw a soldier anywhere in real life, we should shoot him. 

“They also trained me on walking on broken bottles. The broken bottles litter the ground beneath the rope you are taught to walk on. While walking on the rope, you must ensure you don’t slip and fall because if, unfortunately, you do, you would fall on the broken bottles. There are however militants with iron shoes who would rescue and take the person to their clinic. They have doctors there.

“They took me along when they attacked Malamfatero and when they raided Bama. Those were the only places I went with them. Lest I forget, they even have a helicopter in the bush but I never saw it flying.

“Later, two boys were brought to join me and we lived together. I was even assigned a duty at the clinic – to prepare pap for   sick militants. At a point the clinic was virtually under my care and I began contemplating escape. My two new friends were always crying and I kept consoling them by telling them that however long it would take us, we would escape from the settlement by the grace of Allah. 

“One day, one of them asked when were absconding, and I said ‘tomorrow or next’. Later, I reminded them it was time for prayers, and after prayers, he suggested we take one of the motorcycles; so we took it and sped off.  Half way, we abandoned it under a tree and continued on foot. We had parked a lot of money but we exhausted all in our aimless wandering. They came after us but could not get us.

“When we got to a certain village, it happened that one of the boys knew a lady there who fed us. We gave her the remaining small amount of money left and she took us to a river where we boarded a canoe to Niger. The only thing we had to feed on was a desert fruit called Goriba.

“At the camp of the Nigerien army, a soldier interrogated us and helped us board a tipper (truck) to Difa. Some of the drivers who ply the Difa/Maiduguri route knew my father, so I was taken to them and they brought me back. On my return, I was reporting at Sector 1 but all the soldiers I knew there were transferred so I stopped going there. I was later set free to go.

“But before the soldiers released me, I was interrogated on my experience at the Boko Haram camp. They set me free because they said I was too young to think on my own and that I was only forced by the militants to do things against my wish. My father was very happy when I was finally set free. The soldiers don’t even look for me anymore.

Babangida, who doesn’t think the Boko Haram militants are diabolical, says, “As far as I know, it is not true that the militants force their captives to drink human blood or eat human flesh but there is a gadget they use. It has something like an earpiece; the earpiece will be inserted into your ears to alter your mind and change your thinking so that you can kill without feeling anything. If the gadget shows amber light, then your mind has successfully been changed to their doctrine but if it shows red and blue, then they have not succeeded in their bid to win you over.

On the result of the use of the gadget on him, Babangida said, “During the operation on me, the gadget showed red and blue lights, which meant they did not succeed in getting me to their side.”