FEATURE-Rescued from Boko Haram, one girl hankers for life with militant husband

By ADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI for Thomas Reuters Foundation

ABUJA, Feb 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Almost a year after she was rescued from Boko Haram captivity by the Nigerian army, 16-year-old Zara John is still in love with one of the Islamic militants who abducted her.

She was delighted to discover that she was pregnant with his child following a urine and blood test carried out by a doctor in the refugee camp to which she was taken after her rescue.

"I wanted to give birth to my child so that I can have someone to replace his father since I cannot reconnect with him again," said Zara, one of hundreds of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants during a seven-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria.

But any decision over the baby was taken out of her hands.

Her father drowned during flooding in 2010 so her uncles intervened. Some were adamant they did not want a Boko Haram offspring in their family and insisted on an abortion. Others felt the child should not be blamed for its father's crimes.

In the end, the majority carried the vote and Zara was allowed to keep her child, a son she named Usman who is now about seven months old.

"Everybody in the family has embraced the child," Zara told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview, asking that her location remain undisclosed. "My uncle just bought him tins of Cerelac (instant cereal) and milk."

Zara was aged 14 when Boko Haram militants fighting to establish an Islamist state raided her village of Izge, in northeast Nigeria, in February 2014.

They razed homes in the village, slaughtered men, and loaded women, girls and children into trucks.

Two of Zara's brothers were out of town when the militants struck in one of a wave of hit-and-run attacks on villages as well as suicide bombings on places of worship or markets.

Zara's mother fell off one of the overloaded trucks but tried to chase after the vehicle that was ferrying away her only daughter and her four-year-old son but was unable to keep up as the truck headed 22 km (14 miles) road journey to Bita.

ENSLAVED BY MILITANTS

At the time, Bita and other surrounding towns close to the Sambisa forest, were in Boko Haram control.

"As soon as we arrived, they told us that we were now their slaves," Zara recalled.

Her days were spent doing chores and learning the tenets of her new religion, Islam, until, two months later, she was given away in marriage to Ali, a Boko Haram commander, and moved into from a shared house to his accommodation.

"After I became a commander's wife, I had freedom. I slept anytime I wanted, I woke up anytime I wanted," she said.

"He bought me food and clothes and gave me everything that a woman needs from a man," adding that he also gave her a mobile phone with his number plugged in and tattooed his name on her stomach to mark her as a Boko Haram wife.

Ali assured her that the fight would soon be over and they would return to his home town of Baga where he intended his new wife to join his fishing business.

He told her that he had abandoned his fisherman trade and joined the militant group after his father and elder brother, both fishermen like himself, were killed by Nigerian soldiers.

In a June 2015 report based on years on research and analysis of evidence, Amnesty International said the Nigerian army was guilty of gross human rights abuse and extra judicial killing of civilians in parts of northeast Nigeria, calling for an investigation into war crimes.

Ali was not at home when the Nigerian army stormed Bita in March 2015 and rescued Zara and scores of other women, taking them to a refugee camp in Yola in northeast Nigeria.

The raid came as international scrutiny on Nigeria increased after the high profile abduction of 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in northern Nigeria in April 2014 which caused outrage internationally and sparked the global campaign #bringbackourgirls. The girls are yet to be found.

But Zara and Ali stayed in touch by phone until Nigerian soldiers realised some of the girls in the camp were still in touch with their abductors, seized their phones and moved them to another camp until they were reunited with their families.

Zara now lives with her extended family and son in a town far away from Izge.

Back with her family, Zara's male relatives took over control of her life again, with requests for interviews fielded by them and all of her movements monitored by her family.

But asked her opinion, she said she would rather be with her Boko Haram husband.

"If I had my way, I would retrieve the phone number he gave me," she said, regretting not committing his number to memory.

But Zara is realistic and knows the possibility of being reunited with Ali is very slim.

Instead she wants to return to school when Usman stops breastfeeding and maybe then run her own business.

"I want to do a business that is suitable for a woman, something that will not take me out of the house," she said.

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/nigeriaNews/idAFL8N15H51O

For More:


http://dawntodusknews.com/i-miss-my-boko-haram-husband-who-impregnated-me-16-yr-old-zara-john/

Hmmm nawah ooo, power of sex

What a touching story!

Chai, na wa sha

chai!!! Stolkehom syndrome

Olosho victim?

malele:
Hmmm nawah ooo, power of sex

It is called Stockholm Syndrome. It is a psychological condition.

Power of utu (dick)

Sensational headline

kikiki.

Can u imagine, naija soldiers found out that some of the girls are still in contact with their abductors, what happened to the intelligence unit? Those young girls could be used to lure them out of hiding or even lead them to their various camps, but NO, they just seized the phones and relocated them,



Which intelligence body does that?

chigoizie7:
Can u imagine, naija soldiers found out that some of the girls are still in contact with their abductors, what happened to the intelligence unit? Those young girls could be used to lure them out of hiding or even lead them to their various camps, but NO, they just seized the phones and relocated them,

Which intelligence body does that?

You have a good point, but look at it from another angle. Those girls could unwittingly divulge information about their current location and the number of army troops at the camp, over the phone to their Boko Haram (BH) boyfriends or lovers. And those BH guys could launch an attack on the camps and the troops. Can you imagine what would happen?

Tequilah:


You have a good point, but look at it from another angle. Those girls could unwittingly divulge information about their current location and the number of army troops at the camp, over the phone to their Boko Haram (BH) boyfriends or lovers. And those BH guys could launch an attack on the camps and the troops. Can you imagine what would happen?

U might be correct,but when it comes to intelligence units of security operatives, DSS,and soldiers, they did a very shabby job bro.

Tap on the girls phones without their knowledge, then locate the locations of the abductors, and den close in on them,they can still relocate d girls so as to avoid being attacked. U don't need to make the girls know what you want from them, tap through their phones, they wouldn't know when they will link u up with them. Seriously,if naija never get such equipment to trace and track phone calls, den, my village vigilante group will defeat them any day anytime

chigoizie7:
Can u imagine, naija soldiers found out that some of the girls are still in contact with their abductors, what happened to the intelligence unit? Those young girls could be used to lure them out of hiding or even lead them to their various camps, but NO, they just seized the phones and relocated them,



Which intelligence body does that?

Same exact thought that came to me,

It won't come as a surprise to learn that the girls were deliberately let go by the insurgents in order to serve as baits for them to infiltrate the ranks of the NA..

chigoizie7:
U might be correct,but when it comes to intelligence units of security operatives, DSS,and soldiers, they did a very shabby job bro.

Tap on the girls phones without their knowledge, then locate the locations of the abductors, and den close in on them,they can still relocate d girls so as to avoid being attacked. U don't need to make the girls know what you want from them, tap through their phones, they wouldn't know when they will link u up with them. Seriously,if naija never get such equipment to trace and track phone calls, den, my village vigilante group will defeat them any day anytime

Do you think the BH guys would divulge their locations over the phone? If tapping phones could have yielded their location, the Nigerian Army would have been able to pinpoint the exact location of the BH crew in Sambisa forest ages ago, (instead of shelling anything that moves in the forest) and they would have also been able to rescue the Chibok girls, by now.

Beremx:
What a touching story!

look at you sympathising for someone missing her terrorist husband.

Stockholm syndrome.

Sucks that such a young girl has gone through much and is now a mother.

Tequilah:


Do you think the BH guys would divulge their locations over the phone? If tapping phones could have yielded their location, the Nigerian Army would have been able to pinpoint the exact location of the BH crew in Sambisa forest ages ago, (instead of shelling anything that moves in the forest) and they would have also been able to rescue the Chibok girls, by now.

What happened to that technology by mobile network operators where an individual can be located via making phone calls?


U are missing my point here bro, u don't have to make dem divulge their location, all you need is tracking of calls, from their normal communications, u can be able to locate where the both signals are coming from geographically.


Just like in some of your smart phones, when u update, it will indicate where u are updating from. Mobile network operators can help them locate the nearest mast to the location of the caller or receiver and then they carry out their perimeter surveillance based on the geographical nubs round the area and then bombard dem.


But if naija does not have such technology yet, then we can not win this fight.


Why do u think NCC ordered for sim reg? This is also part of the reason, u can be traced, but they don't want a case of mistaken identity. If ur phone is stolen, report it, if your phone is used for crime den be ready for d consequences.

This is serious

chigoizie7:




U might be correct,but when it comes to intelligence units of security operatives, DSS,and soldiers, they did a very shabby job bro.

Tap on the girls phones without their knowledge, then locate the locations of the abductors, and den close in on them,they can still relocate d girls so as to avoid being attacked. U don't need to make the girls know what you want from them, tap through their phones, they wouldn't know when they will link u up with them. Seriously,if naija never get such equipment to trace and track phone calls, den, my village vigilante group will defeat them any day anytime

I totally agree with this. Our intelligence gathering skill is almost non existent.

chigoizie7:




U might be correct,but when it comes to intelligence units of security operatives, DSS,and soldiers, they did a very shabby job bro.

Tap on the girls phones without their knowledge, then locate the locations of the abductors, and den close in on them,they can still relocate d girls so as to avoid being attacked. U don't need to make the girls know what you want from them, tap through their phones, they wouldn't know when they will link u up with them. Seriously,if naija never get such equipment to trace and track phone calls, den, my village vigilante group will defeat them any day anytime

What are you saying, Nigeria never get the tools....there is a tool available in public domain that tells you where calls come from and to where. The power of gps combined with internet.

This girl needs serious deliverance.

After shouting "Bring back our girls" for over a year.

To hear a victim saying this is disheartening.

Madam Oby will not be happy to hear this.

BE LIKE SAY THE THING WEY THIS ONE CHOP IS SO LONG THAT IT HAS SCATTERED HER BRAIN!

When these girls was abducted.. I created a thread talking on Stockholm 's syndrome..

It didn't make FP... Its psychopathology.. A change of reasoning.. Where u feel apathy for ur abuser.

That's the effect of bn brainwashed

Don't blame the young little mislead lady


May God forgiv GEJ and Dasuki for this

Okay go back to am

She's young, what she is feeling is female lust and not love. She will get over it with time.