‘They buried her baby by the river’
It is noon and a woman gives birth by a river.Sand, grass and the sun help to create a ward in an unlikely place. Everyone becomes a doctor or a nurse, and green leaves are arranged to form a bed for the lady. The woman is in terror, not just on account of the birth, […]
It is noon and a woman gives birth by a river.Sand, grass and the sun help to create a ward in an unlikely place. Everyone becomes a doctor or a nurse, and green leaves are arranged to form a bed for the lady. The woman is in terror, not just on account of the birth, but because of the Boko Haram insurgents who are in the neighbourhood. They have already taken the equivalent of three states in the country, and they are armed and seeking territory. A group stands around her. They don’t know whether they should wait and attend to her, as they normally would, or whether they should flee for dear life. Their eyes scour the distance, hoping that they are not being tracked .But these are unusual times, and among the crowd the urge to flee is very real and very strong. They wait. Nature argues that they should. But the urge to survive screams, ‘flee’. That morning Boko Haram had entered Michika in Adamawa state, in great numbers, and with violence. Soldiers fled. Civilians fled. Soldiers fled, the people repeat, saying they removed their uniforms and fled just like the civilians. How does a pregnant woman run from an armed crowd? How does the young lady flee? But …in the fashion of a miracle which contradicts the facts of human medicine… she did. She fled like many others.
Burial by the river
When the group got to the river Dile, the woman had taken enough. Labour pains began, and she was delivered of a child. But the child was dead. It looked like a premature birth brought on by her sudden flight. The woman sobbed and sobbed again. Other women wailed. The men tried to be strong and to offer words of comfort. The woman closed her eyes and thought after her husband,and her 3 children. Are they alive or are they dead like the newborn child? The people present confirmed a second time that the child was dead. They looked about them, and then they put their hands in the wet sand, and began to dig a grave for the little one. It wouldn’t take much time. Many hands made light work of the task. Soon, they reached a considerable depth. A brief prayer was said for the departed one. It is an unmarked grave for the little one who did not have to experience the horrors being witnessed by the living. That’s the will of Heaven, the woman thought and she rested a bit. All of a sudden gunshots issued from a nearby position.There was no time to think or to plan. It was Boko Haram firing again. Everyone fled, moving in different directions, including the woman who had just given birth, and had rested for less than 30 minutes. They fled as a group for another 40 kilometres before they broke into small units, said Talatu Peter, who narrated to Daily Trust the story of the woman who had been delivered of a baby by the river Dile, which is near Lassa. Talatu was pregnant when she fled ,and she was delivered of a child when she got to one of the camps in Yola .
‘I hid in my ceiling for 7 days’
This leads us to the story of Mudu Boni a businessman, who hid in his dusty ceiling for a week, when Boko Haram attacked Gwoza,Borno state, last August. A Muslim, he prayed and ate in his ceiling, and gave advice to his family from his new position. Every day, his wife would climb up to provide him with his meals.He would stretch his hands down to receive his meals, and pass the plates down when he was done.
His words “Around 4:00pm on 5 August this year, Boko Haram started firing guns inside Gwoza.They numbered 10,000 men and they kept going from house to house, slaughtering people. Then I climbed into the ceiling of my house, and spent 7 days there without coming down.” He adds that Boko Haram were not keen on attacking women and children. So, he could hide in the ceiling and still act like a father to his family from the unusual spot. “My wife used to climb up to give me my meals, and I learnt to pray deep in my heart, since it wasn’t possible to stand up there.”
One night, he climbed down from the ceiling, said a hasty goodbye to his wife, and fled to Madagali, which is 26 kilometres from Gwoza. From there he travelled to Yola where he is now Chairman at the NYSC orientation camp, Damare, a refuge for IDPs in the state. On his experience, he says “I never did anything like that in my life, and I totally lost confidence in the country. I was largely feeding on peak powdered milk, while hiding in the ceiling.”
He adds that up till now he has not been able to contact his wife who is still in Gwoza. He has called her number several times, but the phone never rings. This is because Boko Haram had earlier destroyed the masts owned by the telephone companies in the town, making communication with the outside impossible. But he looks forward to going home soon.
‘We fed on raw maize’
Mudu hid in his ceiling, but Saraya Sallah ran for dear life into a forest where she lived for 3 weeks with many other women, eating uncooked maize and vegetables for the period. Later, she relocated to a mountain where she, alongside many others, resided in a cave for another 3 weeks.
One Sunday morning Boko Haram attacked Michika, when many members of the community were in church.Saraya recalls “We left the church and ran into the bush. On the way, I saw a woman who had just given birth to twins, and both of them died. The mother also died. While we were running, if someone fell sick, we would just have to leave the person and continue running. I stayed for three weeks in the bush, eating leaves and uncooked maize.”
There were uncountable people in the bush, and after a while she fled into the forests with many others. On this she says “We lived in the caves while on the mountain. There was no food,and no water, and people were dying on the mountain. Finally, because of overcrowding and the dirt, Cholera broke out on the mountain top. Then we had to flee downwards to Mubi for our own health. Finally, we got to Yola.” She says that there were quite a number of births on the mountain top, as well as some miscarriages too. ‘Its as if we were dead,’ she laments to Daily Trust, saying that quite a number of families in the Michika area, have relations in Cameroon, who fled from Boko Haram. She ends by arguing “We are eager to return to our homes, but life has been tough for all of us.”
Kind Boko Haram
Patience Timothy became thoughtful all of a sudden, especially when she thought after the 200 Chibok girls seized by Boko Haram in April this year. Was she at 15, going to become a part of that number?But all of a sudden and by means of an act of kindness, from an unlikely quarter, life began to get better. She was returning from school in Michika, when she and her five other relations, were abducted by Boko Haram. Her words “The Boko Haram insurgents gathered all of us, and asked us which faith we belonged to. Then they asked why we won’t become Muslims. They put a gun to my brother’s head, and he started crying. They also shot somebody in our presence. We saw a lot of violence.”
But release was very close “One senior commander of Boko Haram then turned up. He looked at us, and asked the men what they were going to do with us. Then he said that we should be released. That is how we were released, because one of the commanders had pity on us.”
Faith fell
A girl in another community was not so lucky. 2 year old Faith fell into a bowl of very hot water on the morning when Boko Haram attacked Mubi. She screamed when her body made contact with the boiling water, and it was as though the end had come for the little one. For a minute her sisters paused in their flight. One of them recovered in a flash as the sound of gunshots drew closer, grabbed Faith with two hands, carefully avoiding the hurting spot, and sped out through the doors. Very soon their home was a distant speck, and Faith was still yelling.
‘Where are my children?’
Up till now Esther Ayuba does not know where her four lovely children are “I went to the market where I sell items at Mubi. Then Boko Haram attacked the town, and before I could return home, my children were no longer there. Then began a long search for the children, with Esther travelling to Yola, Maiha as well as Cameroon, hoping to find the children, and this is a considerable distance for an individual to cover. Her words “I went to Cameroon when I learnt that there were displaced persons from Mubi there. But I didn’t find them there. I am still looking for them.”
But what was life like in Yola, soon after the insurgents had taken Mubi. Yusuf Mohammed, who works at a major health institution in Yola, comments “Life was at its lowest ebb, and death was staring us in the face.To crown it all, many schools were closed ,and the cost of many items rose.” But the situation in Yola has improved.
He says “Fear is reducing, because of the recent victory by the vigilante as well as the hunters.”
Fidelia’s nomadic life
Just like Esther above, Fidelia Joseph has lived a nomadic existence of late. Attacks by Boko Haram have kept expelling her from one town to the next. Many can speak of similar expulsions in parts of the North East. First, Boko Haram insurgents attacked her house in Maiduguri, killing her husband and Samuel, her brother.Then she fled Maiduguri and went to Bama, also in Borno state. Her words “Later, Boko Haram attacked the Bama mobile police barracks, and we were displaced again. In that attack, I lost my brother in law. Then we fled to Michika. This town was also attacked and then we got a vehicle to Bazza in Adamawa state.” But the attacks were not over yet “At Bazza, we were in the church, when the insurgents attacked again. We then hid in the nearby farms until nightfall when we made our way to the Lasssa river. Finally, we got to Yola.” Her recent movements are a line which stretches from Maiduguri to Bama and Michika and then on to Bazza, finally berthing at Yola. There are many like her who have been violently displaced from their communities by Boko Haram.
Hell for Helena
Tears rolled down her face as she narrated her story. Helena Ali lost her father and four elder brothers during an attack by Boko Haram in Gwoza. Her mother is missing, and so life is doubly tough for Helena as well as for Patience, her sister, whom Daily Trust also met at the NYSC Orientation camp, Damare. Her words “Our father and four elder brothers were killed in Gwoza on the day Gwoza was attacked. Our mother is also missing.She left Gwoza during an attack, and we have not seen her since. “Hers is the story of a family almost wiped out in one attack by Boko Haram.
Cecilia in Cameroon
“I got into Cameroon free, without a Visa,” says Cecilia Edwards with a smile. She is a student of the polytechnic at Mubi, and states that many students died in the slaughter that occurred when the insurgents entered their school in October “We trekked to Cameroon where we spent five days. It took us a day to trek from Mubi to Cameroon. But we had to climb 3 mountains before finally arriving in that country ,and there were many other people who had fled Mubi with us on the mountain. The place was just like a city.” But she said there was a bit of a problem when the huge crowd arrived Cameroon “The Cameroonians were saying that Nigerians have Ebola,and so they subjected many of us to tests and immunization of the children. They didn’t want anyone to enter their country just like that.” Later the Cameroonian authorities got a huge vehicle to convey Cecilia and other Nigerians back to Bela which is a border town. There was an escort at the front as well as one following the convoy. A fighter jet flew overhead as the convoy journeyed to the border, Cecilia says.
2,000 soldiers
Apollos Garba lectures at the Adamawa state university, and went through a number of shocks when Boko Haram attacked Mubi. He recalls one such scene “On the morning of 29th October, I went to the Total filling station to buy fuel. I saw so many soldiers there, numbering above 2,000. Some of them were without their boots, and their uniforms were torn. Some were without guns too.They were complaining that their commanding officer had cheated them, and had not allowed them to fire at Boko Haram.They said that before people knew what was happening, Boko Haram had congregated, and had opened fire. Some left towards Yola, and some went and camped at Mararaban Pela. On the other hand, some entered Mubi that morning to evacuate their ammunition from the barracks. One of them said that in the next 3 hours the insurgents will enter Mubi.” Boko Haram did enter Mubi, but before that happened, Apollos had whisked his family out of Mubi, and they were heading towards Yola. He had close shaves with the insurgents on that day. At a point they surrounded his house and fired at his gate. On that occasion, he had his first glimpse of the insurgents “There were many of them in front of my house, and they were armed and they were speaking Kanuri. Three of them were fair in complexion, almost like white men, and each wore a full beard.”
They began to shoot at his gate. Then he fled from his house. He went through a Sorghum farm, a graveyard, and then he fled through a Sorghum farm for a second time. At a point in his flight he came across soldiers “Then the soldiers started to flee when Boko Haram entered the barracks. Some of them that were there began to run towards the mountains. I climbed the Miryi mountains, and some soldiers climbed the mountain and met me there. I witnessed a woman giving birth up there. There was nobody to help her, and there were a number of elderly persons on the mountain too.
I started trekking to Maiha. I walked up to Gombi. It’s a total of 22 kilometres from Mubi to Gombi. It took me 3 hours trekking or running all the time. Anywhere I saw groundnuts in a farm, I would stop and take some. I did the same if I came across a stream and drank water. By this simple method I arrived Yola. While on the mountain, I saw three helicopters coming, and the insurgents used rocket launchers to shoot at them, but they missed. Then a fighter jet of the Nigerian Army came along. This was my first time of seeing such in my life. Above all, we were running. The military threw away their guns. They removed their boots and fled wearing only their boxers and vests. We fled.”