By Umar Yusuf, Yola

Their doleful expression and haggard, weather-beaten appearance said it all: They had not only passed through  the valley of the shadow of death but lived in it and are today alive to tell the story; a story that elicited shock as well as pity. Indeed they are the lucky survivors out of many who were taken into captivity after their communities were invaded and destroyed by insurgents. This is the story of the 275 women and children who were recently rescued by Nigerian troops from the dreaded Sambisa forest. They are presently trying to start life afresh at the Malkohi Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, Camp in Yola.

When Vanguard Metro, VM, visited, emotions ran high as the women and children could not hide their joy at leaving Sambisa forest, their place of captivity for a very long time. Even officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, could not hide their feelings after listening to the captives narrate their bitter experiences.

NEMA’s Director Search and Rescue Operations, Air Commodore Charles Otegbade (rtd), said his agency will do everything possible to ensure that the victims were well  rehabilitated, adding that provisions have already been made for their feeding, medicare and accommodation for total rehabilitation. Most of the rescued persons showed evidences of varying ailments, including fractures, dislocations, gun shots among others. Indeed 22 of them were immediately hospitalised on account of their obvious health challenges.

All the victims were fully registered upon arrival, though most of them are children and so their statistics were not taken so as to separate them from the women.

Information obtained from some of the rescued women indicated that they endured three days of tortuous journey after they were rescued before finally arriving Yola. Their disheveled and gaunt appearances elicited sympathy from onlookers.

Most of them looked hunger-stricken.  The children kept wailing apparently due to ill-health and malnutrition. But luckily for them, the United Nations International Children Education Fund, UNICEF, was readily on ground to provide the needed help to assuage  their plight.

Running into terrorists

One of the rescued  women at the Malkohi camp who identified herself as Bilikus had so much to say about the fate that befell them. “l live and sell fish in Maiduguri, Borno State. It was when I travelled to my village in Chio in that my ordeal started. I boarded a vehicle going to my village. Along the way, we ran into the terrorists. They killed all men in the car and took three of us women, including one nursing mother whose husband was among the men they killed right in front of us.

“We were taken to their camp. On getting there they gave us food to eat and then ordered us to wear hijabb. They did not allow us to take our bath initially, but later they brought water for us.

“Almost on a daily basis these people were bringing women and children to the camp; the young girls were molested at will. God will never forgive them for they had no mercy for women”,  she told VM through an interpreter, with tears rolling down her face.