It was midnight when Babagana crept out of the Boko
Haram hideout that had been his home for three days.
Once he made his escape, he walked through the
forest for hours before he found help. Like the other
boys conscripted by the militants, he had been told
that he would be hunted down and killed if he
deserted.
“I didn’t leave with anything,” Babagana told me.
“When the chance came to escape, I only had my
pants on. I ran almost naked.”
Babagana was just 16 when militants invaded his town
in north-eastern Nigeria last May, butchering his
parents as he watched, burning down his home, and
forcing him to become one of thousands of Boko
Haram soldiers.
Babagana still vividly recalls his involuntary induction
into a world of misery. Boko Haram militants invaded
the rural town of Gamboru in Borno State, burnt down
houses and demanded that the local children be
handed over to them.
Parents who objected were killed, and a couple of
children were forcefully taken.
“They asked me about my parents,” Babagana said.
“They then killed them in front of me.”
“That is how Boko Haram operates. They first take out
your parents so you have no one else to fall back to.”
The six-year-old insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has
produced a replay of the country’s civil war in the late
1960s. Thousands have died, and more than one
million people have been displaced. Famine is
threatening, and cholera has broken out in some
places. Sexual violence is on the rise. And attacks on
soft civilian targets continue, carried out by child
soldiers much younger than their victims.
For three days, Babagana, traveled with Boko Haram
through the dusty paths of Borno, not knowing what
his fate would be as the militants duplicated the
horrors they’d visited upon Gamboru. Babagana
witnessed many of his fellow captives and people from
other villages murdered by Boko Haram.
“They killed people for no reason,” Babagana said. “I
just couldn’t stand the horror. It made me terribly
scared.”
Although he was only with the militants for three days,
Babagana witnessed acts so brutal that he decided to
risk his life to escape.
“They killed anyone who didn’t heed to their
instructions,” he told me. “Girls were often subjected
to sexual abuse. Anyone who proved stubborn was
shot dead.”
“I lost my mind with all that I saw,” he added. “I
thought if I didn’t find a way of escaping, sooner
rather than later, it would be my turn.”
Babagana tried to rally a handful of fellow captives to
escape with him. He was unsuccessful, as they were
too scared to make any move. “I tried to talk my
colleagues into escaping. They wanted to, but were
scared they could be caught and killed,’” he recalled.
Around midnight on the following day, Babagana made
his move, running into the bush as his captors shouted
in alarm and began to fire at him. He managed to
escape without a bullet wound. Alone in the
wilderness, he continued to move, not knowing if he
was being pursued.
“I was lucky to have escaped,” Babagana said. “There
were so many voices and bullets coming after me,” he
said.
Babagana eventually made it back to Gamboru, but
found himself ostracized by his kinsmen, who no
longer trusted him. Unable to depend on the
community for protection, Babagana again went on the
move, traveling to from one village to the other across
northern Borno and many times narrowly avoiding
recapture as militants kept invading new communities.
He finally made it to a displacement camp in
Maiduguri, a place he now calls home.
Hassan Mustapha, a child-protection specialist in
Maiduguri, said children are often put to “test of
manhood” once there are conscripted.
“Once a child is conscripted by Boko Haram, he is first
asked to kill his parents, which is a symbol of initiation
into the sect,” Mustapha said. “They destroy
everything of value to these children so they have no
options.”
Many of the children captured by Boko Haram serve
on the front lines, fighting for control of villages and
looting the homes of the civilians. Others children
serve as spies, scouts, porters, cooks and bodyguards
for officers. Girls are also kept as sex slaves.
Yusuf Mohammed, a Maiduguri resident who works
with children affected by trauma, said children are
often used as foot soldiers because they are too
young to be afraid.
“Militants feel more comfortable working with children
than with adults because they come cheap, are
extremely loyal, and can be easily controlled,” he said.
“Unlike adults, it is easy to brainwash and intimidate
them.”
• Culled from The Daily Beast
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