Bitrus Zachariah with his wife Rebecca came under the ferocious attack of Boko Haram elements on the 21 August 2014. This attack happened before the widely-publicised 2015 massive offensive which saw Boko Haram terrorists completely overran the headquarters of the multinational Joint Task Force in the town of Baga.
Baga, a Nigerian town at the extreme north of Borno State has had more than its share of Boko Haram atrocities.
Rebecca narrated to me how Boko Haram fighters stormed her town. In great confusion, she fled her lovely home with her husband, Bitrus and two sons, Zachariah who was 3 years, and Jonathan 1. At the time, she was expecting a third child. She lost her pregnancy six months later owing to the subhuman condition she was subjected to after her capture by the militants.
On that fateful day of the attack, as they fled, she knew that her husband was the primary target of the militants. With Boko Haram hot in pursuit, Bitrus could not run fast enough because he was carrying their one year old son, Jonathan. Rebecca pleaded with Bitrus to run and save his life. She urged him to leave them behind. Bitrus heeded her advice and quickly ran to hide in a nearby bush. When Boko Haram came looking for him, they could not find him and so they kept spraying bullets in his direction. Luckily for him, no bullet touched him. After some time, Bitrus emerged from his hiding place but by now had become separated from his wife and children.
Bitrus was left wondering what to do next. He suffered from shame and guilt for not protecting his family when they needed him the most. Bitrus says he went to the nearby town of Mongonu and for two weeks kept searching for his family. As he waited for days on end, he would see a lot of people coming out of Baga.
“I kept asking them of the whereabouts of my wife....no one could tell me any good news. I became depressed and regularly experienced bouts of a migraine and High Blood pressure.
Rebecca explained, “When Bitrus fled to hide, Boko Haram came to me. They kept saying, "...da mun kashe Mujin ki..da mun Sami lada....ama ton da Allah bai bari ba...ke da yaran ki sai ku je ku yi aikin Allah,” meaning if only we had killed your husband we would have received Allah’s reward...but since Allah did not permit that.... you and your children will go and work for Allah...thereafter they hit me with the butt of a big Gun knocking out some of my teeth.”
Rebecca’s nightmare had only just begun. They took her and her two sons across Lake Chad. Crossing the lake was an ordeal with water sometimes coming up to her neck. After a long trek lasting about seven days, they arrived at a place called Kwalleram. Rebecca was assigned the task of cleaning, washing and cooking for the for militants and their wives. Sometimes the captives would remove surrounding bushes and make pathways for the motorcycles of the militants.
They kept moving. The militants took Rebecca to a town called Gurva where she found 2000 other Nigerians who had been forcibly captured by Boko Haram.
About two months later, they had to move yet again. This time she was taken to a town called Tilma.
“It was in Tilma that they engraved the number 69 on my back. I don’t really know its meaning, and I never cared to ask. Soon after, they sold me to a man called Bage Guduma. I was with him for about 55 days. They gave me Palm fruit to eat but thank God I didn't eat any of it. That would have cast a spell on me, and I would have been hypnotised and lost my senses. I also could not bear to be touched by the man. For that, his boys beat me up ruthlessly. They made me dig a hole for three weeks till I hit water level. Sometimes I received 98 lashes. They took my second son Jonathan and threw him into Lake Chad alive. My son drowned and died,” Rebecca recalls.
She continued her narration, “Malla became the second man they brought to me. They forced me to sleep with Malla and when I resisted they threw me into their prison -a dark pit, I was in the pit for two whole days without food or water. When I came out, Malla forced himself on me, and I become pregnant. After that, I tried to kill myself, but the wife of a Pastor, herself abducted from Gwoza, pleaded with me not to take my life. She already had two children fathered by the militants. When the time came for me to give birth, I delivered at home, alone. No one came to my aid. I cut the placenta myself. I was in great pain. I received no medical attention. They named my son Ibrahim. They liked him because he is a boy. The fighters want women who give birth to male children. Malla, the Boko Haram man, had travelled out and only came back six weeks after I had given birth.”
After Ibrahim's birth, Malla began to grow tired of Rebecca and promised to sell her to another man. It was then she decided to try and escape.
Once when most of the Boko Haram fighters had travelled out, Rebecca obtained permission from a female Boko Haram militant, probably the commander’s wife to see a friend in another area under Boko Haram control. When permission was granted, Rebecca headed instead to a small community called Maitele. From there, Rebecca with her sons Zachariah and Ibrahim joined others walking towards what they thought was the Nigerian border. She was not sure of her whereabouts, but she pressed on. Hungry and thirsty, she eventually ended up in Diffa, a town in Niger. With the help of some people, she linked up with military personnel operating in the area. The military in Niger gave her sons and herself some badly needed medical care. They also gave them some food and brought her and her sons to some Nigerian soldiers in Damaturu. Damaturu is a local government area of Yobe state in Nigeria.
It was also the military who eventually helped her reach Maiduguri where she reunited with her husband, Bitrus. Rebecca has nothing but praise for the military personnel she met in Niger and Nigeria including some of whom she thinks may have been US military personnel.
For Bitrus, "seeing my wife with the son of a Boko Haram father frightens me a lot. I was very happy to see my wife but the boy makes my heart break. May God make me love him...yes, the son of a snake...,” Bitrus comments with bitterness.
Rebecca is not sure what will happen between her and Bitrus. If Bitrus does not come to terms with the presence of the child, Ibrahim, she is contemplating relocating to join her parents. Her parents are currently in Cameroon.
Sometimes, she too has mixed feelings about her son, Ibrahim. This is compounded by the stigma that traumatised women and girls rescued along with children fathered by Boko Haram fighters encounter from their erstewhile societies. Rebecca has even tried to give the child “to the government” but the military personnel encouraged her to keep the child. Ibrahim is now eight months.
For now, Bitrus and his family are in the custody of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri. 500 Internally Displaced Persons are currently housed in the incomplete buildings that were meant to have been the Diocesan Secretariat compound.
(By Fr. Gideon Obasogie, Directorate of Social Communications in Maiduguri, Nigeria/ edited: Fr. Paul Samasumo)
Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va
