Escaping Boko Haram, telling stories of Chibok girls

Some 10 months after the Chibok boarding school kidnapping in Nigeria and the #BringBackOurGirls global reaction, many children are still missing. The Boko Haram extremist group sees the mass kidnapping as a shining symbol of success, and has abducted hundreds of other girls, boys and women. The militants brag to their new captives about the surrender of the Chibok girls, their conversion to Islam and their marriage to fighters. Abigail John, 15, who was held by Boko Haram for more than four weeks before escaping, was among three girls interviewed by The Associated Press who recently escaped from Boko Haram. While their stories could not be independently verified, they were strikingly similar, and all spoke of their captors’ obsession with the Chibok girls.

They told me the Chibok girls have a new life where they learn to fight. They said we should be like them and accept Islam.

Abigail John, 15-year-old

The fighters said the Chibok girls were all Muslims now, and some were training as fighters to fight women, which Boko Haram men are not supposed to do. On Wednesday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan again promised the girls will be brought home alive, saying he is “more hopeful” about their fate now that a multinational force is being formed to fight Boko Haram. Even if the girls are released, people in Chibok say at least 13 of their parents have died since they were seized, in Boko Haram violence or possibly stress-related illness.

Africa Boko